"Heal the Harbor" Invites Public to Rye City Council Meeting's Hen Island Discussion Monday

The following is a reader submitted article from Heal the Harbor--

HEALtheHARBOR.com

On Monday, August 4, the Rye City Council has a meeting scheduled at Rye City Hall starting at 7:30PM. On the agenda, after many years of local debate and discussion, is the subject of Rye’s offshore summer cottage colony called Hen Island.

Many in Rye are aware that conditions out on Hen Island are far from good. Many are aware via our documentary videos and web site that these conditions produce health and safety problems unimaginable for Island residents, as well as Rye’s mainland and its surrounding Sound Shore communities including Mamaroneck, Harrison and Larchmont.

We are sure most of you that live here or frequent the clubs on Milton Point have noticed the increase in seasonal mosquito infestation numbers year after year after year. Hen Island’s rooftop rainwater collection systems fill unprotected cisterns holding over 33,000 gallons of stagnant, untreated rainwater along with acres of man-made breeding pools. Both breed swarms of mosquitoes in season daily. Hen Island’s primitive unsanitary and unapproved sewage ‘disposal’ methods have also been contributing to pollution in Milton Harbor for decades.

Monday night’s City Hall meeting, arranged by new Rye Mayor Joe Sack, will provide a forum for concerned or impacted residents and visitors to voice their concerns and learn more about the reasons these conditions must no longer be tolerated. There are currently laws on the books that can be used to bring the private property homeowners of Hen Island into compliance with safety codes and water standards which similar private property homeowners on the mainland live by and expect.

Additionally, last summer Massachusetts County Mosquito Control Public Health Commissioner Kimberly King traveled down to Rye and performed an unannounced inspection of Hen Island. Ms. King previously lost her 5-year-old daughter Adreana to EEE, a well known mosquito borne illness. Since her daughter’s death, Ms. King has been involved on a national level with mosquito control, education and awareness. She is also a member of several National Vector Borne Disease Control organizations. The results of last year’s inspection were turned into the documentary video “Rye Vector Borne”, a link to which is below. Ms. King will be returning to Rye to attend Monday’s meeting.

Ms. King’s 2013 Rye City Council presentation was also informative yet disturbing. We would encourage you to view it. The video link is here - Rye Vector Borne

Rye City Council Meeting July 2013

Finally, we would also encourage everyone to view our latest video “A Failure to Protect.” It was produced in the effort to illuminate how prior Rye politicians have put the lives of our families in jeopardy and allowed members of the Westchester County Health Department to mislead residents and visitors that there is “no threat to public health” from the swarms of island breeding mosquitoes on Hen Island.

A Failure to Protect

HEALtheHARBOR.com