The letter below is a reprint of Lois Roslak’s June 27, 2002 column in the Traveler Watchman, submitted with love by her husband, Thomas Roslak of Cutchogue, in honor of International Women’s Day.
Double Mischief
“To be a woman and a writer is double mischief, for the world will slight her who slights ‘the servile house’ and who would rather make odes than beds.
That about says it all for me. Cleaning the house when the children were young was among my top “must do” list items, but somehow it started to tumble off the pedestal I had placed it on. Back in my youth, I remember whipping breakfast for all, packing lunch boxes and milk money and kissing all as they went on the “Big Yellow school bus.”
While they were out of the house (it seemed only for a very short time), the daily wash began. Where have these clothes been hiding? No matter how I changed the routine, there were always two to three loads a day. And I remember when they shipped this new, ‘do everything’ washer and dryer to our home, I had been sooooo very happy. Actually, I never did find out what the special features did, because I had no time to study and test it. So began a new day at the same routine.
After the wash, the ironing, making the beds, dusting, vacuuming, planning the evening dinner and all the million small tasks, you were able to sit down to a somewhat peaceful lunch. I’ve never figured out how the salespeople knew when you rested, because that was when they would telephone and offer all of the time-saving devices ever invented — to make our day a great deal easier by using their items. Placed an order, waited about a month and a half before we received it. I’d forgotten what it was supposed to do. Easy, look at the enclosed instructions. That took a good piece of my morning, because you must find instructions in English amongst the other foreign instructions. This was just one incident among many, many more.
Lois Roslak
Cutchogue
Would you like to share some of your incidents in the world of women’s work with our readers? As a woman-owned company, The Beacon will be celebrating our stories all month. Email us at editor@eastendbeacon.com
Southold Slacking on Housing
To the Editor:
Has even one affordable house been built in this town in 10 years ???
Under the current inclusionary zoning regulations in Southold Town as of 2026, developers of any new subdivision containing more than five lots must set aside up to 20 percent of those lots for affordable housing. On paper, that sounds like progress. But in practice, many residents are asking whether it is enough and whether it is being fully realized. If we are serious about affordability, perhaps it is time to strengthen that requirement to a true one for one standard: for every luxury home approved, one affordable home must be built.
Under Jill Doherty’s supervision and leadership, a housing plan was established, and funding continues to flow through the Community Preservation Fund, supported by the 0.5 percent CPF revenue stream. There was a sense that follow through had begun. Yet in the past couple of years, momentum appears to have slowed, and the results many hoped to see have not materialized at the scale promised.
For more than a decade, “affordable housing” has been a familiar campaign theme. Every election season brings renewed commitments to protect working families, keep young people local, and help first time buyers put down roots. But after years of speeches and mailers, how many truly affordable homes have actually been completed? At some point, the gap between rhetoric and reality becomes too large to ignore. Talking about affordability is easy. Producing it requires urgency, execution, and accountability.
Meanwhile, multimillion dollar subdivisions continue moving forward. Four and five thousand square foot homes selling at mansion level prices are being approved with little hesitation. Southold drifts closer each year to becoming an extension of the Hamptons higher prices, rising assessments, and fewer options for blue collar families. Teachers, tradespeople, town employees, and young couples raised here are increasingly priced out. A healthy community cannot thrive if the next generation has no pathway to remain.
At the same time, residents see elected officials forming committees centered on ICE and broader immigration policies issues largely driven at the federal level. It raises a fair question: did we elect activists to debate national politics, or leaders to focus on the local challenges directly shaping this town’s future? Housing affordability, taxes, infrastructure, and long term planning demand sustained attention and measurable progress.
This is not opposition to development. It is a call for balanced growth and disciplined leadership. If we want Southold to remain a diverse, year round community, we must move beyond promises. Strengthen the requirements. Enforce them consistently. Set clear targets and meet them.
Southold does not need more discussion. It needs results.
Sincerely,
Jason Taggart
Southold
Editor’s Note: Mr. Taggart is a member of the Southold Town Republican Committee
Chicken Math
To the Southold Town Planning Board:
I am writing with regard to the proposed 6000 chickens to be housed on Ackerly Pond Lane. I live directly across the street from the parcel and my living room windows look out directly on that land which as long as I have lived here (35 years)has been woods. When development rights were sold, I appeared at Town Hall and expressed delight on behalf of myself and my neighbors. We all noticed the for sale sign this summer and assumed a local farmer would be farming.
As we all now know the owner is a full time college student. He told me he owns it with his father (who has remained entirely out of sight). This is an owner/investor with a start up business not a local farmer. His plan is to house 6000 chickens, in six moveable houses (1000 chickens per house — hoop houses likely) and will not feed them anything with additives thereby allowing for “organic” labeling. The chickens will not be birds in pastured sunlight but will live in enclosures. Hired workers will feed, water, collect eggs, wash eggs, refrigerate eggs if washed, package eggs and load onto trucks to be carried to market.
As someone who spent a childhood on a farm and as someone who has backyard chickens and ducks, I have questions about the enormous egg operation outside my living room windows.
Laying hens produce most eggs between 20-70 weeks of age. Will he bring in already laying hens? And what is his plan for the natural death of 10% of his 6000 birds? Statistically that will happen. Not diseased or sick, birds simply die. At about a 10% rate.
What is his plan when his 6000 ( all the same age) birds “age out ” of prime production — 70 weeks. Will he kill them on sight? Bury them in a hole or haul to our dump? Maybe an arrangement with a meat processing plant?
6000 hens will each lay an egg at least 5 days of the week. If they’re Rhode Island Reds or another big producer 6 days out of 7. He will every day have roughly 5400 eggs -every week maybe 37,000 eggs. Ackerly Pond will certainly experience unprecedented daily truck traffic.
I’m sure you have done your research into the terrible problem of manure. One hoop house with 1000 birds (remember there will be six of these) will create roughly 260 pounds of manure per DAY. That is 47 tons each year for just one of the six houses. It takes 4-6 months for this wet manure to break down enough to be useful on a garden (wet manure burns plants and is totally useless). What is the plan to deal with this enormous amount of manure produced every day? Trucking away? Piling in heaps to age? The ammonia created by manure is a threat to air quality and manure is a major pollutant to both surface and groundwater.
And yes, the NY State’s Right to Farm Law states ” farmers shall have the right to farm in Southold without undue interference from adjacent landowners or users.” Indeed. But I think we can make an argument, even given the huge umbrella of “farmer” that this is not a “farm” despite the “agricultural” nature of the business. Simply installing a huge number of chickens on a piece of land does not make that land a farm. This is not some young person trying to invest in his community and live his dream of farming. These are absentee owners. This is strictly a business investment. This is far more factory than farm.
Let us not be naive. These hens may not be living in tiny cages dropping eggs down a tube but this is a factory farm. This will be the first factory farm in Southold Town.
This is a proposed egg production plant that threatens neighbors with the very “undue interference” with which the Right to Farm act protects the farmer. Here we have no real farmer. But we do have real neighbors who will certainly feel burdened.
Sincerely,
Emily Geiger
Southold
Is There American Culture?
To the Editor:
Well, for me, yes, with my family arriving in America 363 years ago from France. As a 12th generation American with the namesake Edward Allen Marlatt [aka Edouard Alain Merlet]
With the Cancel Culture/History movement in this country, and the ensuing culture wars with multiculturalism, where is American Culture?
For us colonial descendants [pre-American Revolution], it is the American Culture that has been passed down inherently from generation to generation over multiple centuries, from 1608 to 2026 and beyond.
Why does my culture get pushed aside and lack acknowledgement/acceptance?
I only know American Culture, and I love it that way. God Bless America!
Yes, there was Native-American culture before that; however, they are immigrants also, who migrated to America. Their tooth structure will tell that they are from Asia (yellow or brown complexion). They do not have the same tooth structure as European Americans or African Americans (white complexion, black complexion).
Three races, three different complexions, and three different tooth structures in a two-gender world. There is biracialism when two races are joined together.
When a crime is committed, and the victim is severely burned, forensic scientists will check their tooth structure to identify their racial background and will check their lower anatomy to identify their gender. It is a standard procedure.
Edward A. Marlatt PhD
Mattituck
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