Orient Congregational Church to host Rural & Migrant Ministry talk this Sunday

The Town of Southold is placing new restrictions on watering lawns to encourage conservation as the North Fork grapples with a water supply crisis. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the law, approved in a 4-1 vote this week, requires new automatic sprinkler systems to be outfitted with smart controllers and rain sensors that prevent watering for two days after a half inch of rain falls.

Southold’s volunteer Water Advisory Committee has been advocating for stricter irrigation rules to reduce the strain on the sole-source aquifer as demand for water soars. The Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves about 9,500 customers in Southold Town, estimates 70% of water pumped during peak summer hours is used for landscape irrigation.

Up to 50% of that water goes to waste “due to overwatering caused by inefficient irrigation methods and systems,” according to Southold’s new code.

Officials said Southold is a particular concern due to shallow wells and overpumping, which has caused saltwater intrusion in some areas.

The new law also bans sprinkler heads from watering paved areas and mandates an odd-even watering schedule. Under that system, properties with even numbered addresses must water on even numbered days of the month, and odd-numbered houses on odd-numbered days.

Backyard food gardens, farms, nurseries and garden centers are exempt from the rules, and the town set a three-year grace period for existing systems to comply.

Southold Town officials have said enforcement would focus on voluntary compliance and education rather than through punitive fines. During periods of “extreme drought,” the law allows the town to ban irrigation on all properties and fine offenders up to $1,000 per violation.

The conservation law comes as the SCWA issued an alert asking customers to conserve water, citing “dangerously low” levels.

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The Center Moriches school district approved time sheets that employees submitted for working at athletic events that had conflicting game times or on dates when no games were scheduled, state auditors found. Dandan Zou reports in NEWSDAY that those employees were among 13 whose time sheets were found to be not "adequately supported," according to a report from NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office. The payments, which were also made for tutoring services, totaled more than $100,000.

Auditors raised questions on “the reasonableness of payments for 258 chaperoning and sports scorekeeping events totaling $14,190 due to various discrepancies with game schedules,” according to the report released last week but announced publicly yesterday. It was based on an audit that covered the period from July 2022 through March 2024.

The discrepancies in time sheets submitted by eight employees included overlapping game schedules that would have meant the employees attended two games at the same time at different locations, dates when no games were scheduled, or time sheets that indicated multiple tournaments on the same date and location, the report said.

The comptroller's office recommended the district establish "comprehensive written payroll processing policies."

Center Moriches schools Superintendent Ricardo Soto in a letter to the comptroller’s office last month said corrective measures were implemented and the district is developing a payroll processing policy to be adopted.

“The report supports our continuing efforts to protect the district’s financial integrity,” he wrote in the June 26 letter. “The change in the time sheets will help ensure that employees are receiving payments for time actually worked.”

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Rural & Migrant Ministry, an outreach program to farm workers formed in 1981 by a consortium of New York State churches, has been a part of the East End’s support network for immigrant workers here for decades. This coming Sunday at Orient Congregational...