In an ongoing legal dispute between the Fishers Island Ferry District and Southold Town over a four-bedroom house on the island that’s being used to house Southold police, a state court judge this week denied the ferry district’s motion for an injunction aimed at blocking the town from using the property.
In its ruling, the court said it was “perplex[ed]” by the ferry district’s argument that a November 2024 Southold Town Board resolution granted it authority to file the lawsuit, even though the events leading to the lawsuit (the Town’s December, 2024 revocation of permission) had not yet occurred.
“The Ferry District’s assertion that it was somehow granted authority to maintain an action that had not yet accrued at the time … remains unexplained,” State Supreme Court Acting Justice Joseph Farneti wrote.
The judge said the ferry district failed to provide any documentation or resolutions from its commissioners to prove it had the authority to file the lawsuit. Despite being “afforded the courtesy” of extra time to submit this evidence, the district failed to do so, according to Farneti.
The court noted that the Town owns the property, has the authority to allocate its use and that a rental permit issued by the Town in 2023 did not grant the Ferry District any legal right to occupy or possess the property. In December 2024, the Town Board revoked the Ferry District’s permission to use the property at 357 Whistler Ave., prioritizing its use for police officers. The court found this action within the Town Board’s authority.
Like several other properties on Fishers Island, the Whistler Ave. house is town-owned but is overseen by the ferry district’s board of commissioners, who manage rentals and direct profits back to the district. A 2015 state audit found the ferry district earned more than $77,000 from its property rentals the year prior. The town also owns roughly 200 acres at the Elizabeth Field airport on the island.
‘Forcibly’
In May, the ferry district filed a $2 million lawsuit alleging that Southold police “forcibly” seized the Whistler Avenue house on New Year’s Day — cutting the locks, ejecting “all property and people,” and moving in without approval from the district’s governing board. In a July letter to the court Southold Town Police Chief Steve Grattan called that claim “blatantly false” and said that the home was a “vacant, unoccupied, town-owned property” when police took possession of it.
Ferry district attorney Keith Corbett did not immediately return a call for comment, or respond to a set of emailed questions — including a request for an explanation about the district’s claim that “people” were ejected from the Whistler Ave. property.
Town officials counter that they acted lawfully and out of necessity. After state troopers abandoned their Fishers Island barracks in late 2023, citing unsafe conditions, Southold police assumed year-round patrol duties for the remote island’s residents. With few housing options available, the Town Board voted in December to revoke the ferry district’s control over 357 Whistler, declaring the property essential for police use.
$5,000 monthly rent
Public records show the Whistler Ave. house, purchased by Southold from the federal government in 1984 with the help of a $14,000 private donation, had long been occupied by a district manager. After sitting vacant, it was approved in 2023 for rental by ferry district staff, and the district board later authorized $147,000 in renovations.
The district had arranged to lease the home to the private Hay Harbor Club for the summer of 2024 and planned to rent it out year-round thereafter. But by November 2024, Southold officials — already paying $5,000 per month to rent another house for officers — were assessing Whistler Avenue as a permanent police residence.
Town officials have said they repeatedly offered to reimburse the ferry district for its renovation expenses but never received documentation of the costs. When the district re-secured the house with new locks at the end of December, police cut them to gain entry. The town also paid the 2025 property taxes for 357 Whistler Ave.
The ferry district filed suit more than five months after the Town Board revoked its control of the property. In rejecting the district’s injunction request, the court emphasized that the Town Board retains discretion to allocate town assets, and dismissed the district’s claim that it held inherent authority to sue the town.
The case will now proceed without the emergency order the district sought to reclaim the property. Meanwhile, Southold police continue to live in the disputed house.