Photo: Courtney Blasl.
Fishers Island community members expressed concern that their health needs are not being met under New York State insurance at yesterday’s annual Southold Town Board meeting held on Fishers Island.
Candace Whitman, a member of the Island Community Board, told town board members about someone she knew who recently had to pay out-of-pocket to get a prescription filled in New London, Connecticut, since her New York State insurance was not accepted there.
“Due to our geography and our only direct transportation is to Connecticut, when we have to see a doctor or use services in New York state, it really leaves us in a lurch,” she explained.
New London is about a 20-minute ferry ride from Fishers Island. The only way for Fishers Island residents to get to Long Island is not by direct ferry, but to take the boat to New London and then a second ferry to Orient.
“For our families whose children are on the CHIP program, a federal program, they are required to see doctors in New York,” Whitman explained. “For seniors… when it comes to receiving home health services, after surgery, there’s no agency in Connecticut that will send someone to New York because it’s across the state lines.”
It can be costly just to do routine doctor visits as well, she said.
“We have one family on the island with six children and when they go to get their yearly ‘well visit,’ they have to take the ferry to New London, then to Orient Point, stay overnight in a motel and then see the doctor before they come back,” Whitman said. “It’s a lot of money out of pocket.”
Whitman says their hope is to be able to get access to Connecticut health insurance, and hinted that she and Senator Ken LaValle and representatives from Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s offices were “working towards a solution.”
“This really illustrates some of the ways the Island Community Board can be effective going forward in terms of helping us solve community problems when we don’t have a great deal of government structure here,” Whitman said.
The Island Community Board was created in 2005 to help better represent Fishers Island community members. During the meeting yesterday they gave a presentation on their progress — they’d recently held elections, completed a two-year plan and are working on creating a brochure targeted towards people interested in moving to the small community.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell presided over the meeting, which was held yesterday in the Fishers Island school gymnasium.
The yearly meeting gives Fishers Island residents a chance to voice their concerns to their representatives. Members of town, county and state government all made the trip and were in attendance.
Russell started off the afternoon with a thank-you.
“Southold Town and Fishers Island School District saw a need for an emergency generator,” he said, explaining that the school serves as the island’s shelter in case of emergency. “We came together, created an agreement and shared a cost of about $50,000.”
Russell said he had run into LaValle and had a brief conversation with him, during which he mentioned the generator purchase and how it exemplified the town and island’s “spirit of working together.”
“Within two days, he contacted my office and let me know he secured $50,000 to reimburse the town and the school district,” Russell said. “That money should be forthcoming.”
LaValle, who was in attendance, received a round of applause — but it wouldn’t be his last of the day.
“Then, knowing how that worked out, I happened to run into him at another meeting,” Russell said to laughter. “We discussed the terrible conditions the roads were in and the fact that the budget was so stretched due to the cost of resurfacing.”
This time, the wait was a little longer than two days. A week later Russell’s office received a call that the senator had secured $250,000 for road restoration in the Town of Southold.
Other items of note on the agenda:
- The board passed a resolution authorizing the purchase of a replacement phone system for the police department, which will cost $14,470 and includes installation, warranty, equipment and software.
- The board ratified and approved a Fishers Island Ferry District Board of Commissioners amendment to the 2016 district budget to the amount of $29,000.
