East Islip, NY — Crash Data, Roads, History & Law

History

East Islip lies within the patent William Nicoll received from Sachem Winnequaheagh of Connetquot on November 29, 1683; the Town of Islip's own history describes the Secatogues, a subdivision of the Algonquin people, as the Native inhabitants of the area, and states that Nicoll named his roughly 50,000-acre plantation "Islip Grange," after the town in England from which he emigrated.^[1] The Town's account says the original settlement "encompassed Bayport, Bohemia, Brentwood, Central Islip, East Islip, Great River, Hauppauge, Holbrook, Holtsville, Islip Terrace, Oakdale, Sayville, West Sayville, and part of Ronkonkoma," and that "part of Nicoll's original domain is now the site of Heckscher State Park."^[1]

By the late nineteenth century, part of that former Nicoll domain along the Great South Bay had passed to Gilded Age owners. New York's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation states that Heckscher State Park "was once the 19th century estates of George C. Taylor and J. Neal Plum," and separately that "William Nicoll, founder of the Town of Islip, originally built his estate on this property."^[2] Assembling those estates into a public park was, in the state's own description, "one of Robert Moses' most difficult fights to obtain land for public recreation on Long Island," resolved only "with assistance and support from then Governor Alfred E. Smith" and a donation from philanthropist August Heckscher; the resulting park covers 1,600 acres on the Great South Bay.^[2]

East Islip's own historical society was founded "during the summer of 1992" and organizes its picture archive around the hamlet's vanished shorefront estates as well as neighboring Great River and Islip Terrace; it styles East Islip "The Birthplace of Islip Town."^[15]

How the roads got here

Sunrise Highway, New York State Route 27, is a state highway; the New York State Department of Transportation's official touring-route description routes it through Nassau and Suffolk Counties on a corridor that runs east past North Babylon and Great River toward the South Fork.^[10] Montauk Highway, New York State Route 27A, is likewise a state highway; NYSDOT's description places it on "Carman Mill Road, Merrick Road and Montauk Highway to Babylon, Bay Shore, Islip, East Islip, Great River, Oakdale Exit."^[10]

Law and legal history

East Islip's most significant reported legal history is the fight over the land that became Heckscher State Park. On December 4, 1924, the Long Island State Park Commission filed an ex parte "notice of appropriation" asserting that a 1,500-acre parcel in the Town of Islip, "known as the Taylor estate," was appropriated for state park purposes; the Court of Appeals' own account of the case states that "the possession they seized by immediately sending State troopers, who by force put the plaintiff off the property and have maintained exclusive possession ever since."^[3] The landowner, Pauchogue Land Corporation, sued the Commission and its individual members to void the seizure, enjoin further interference, and recover damages.^[3]

In Pauchogue Land Corp. v. Long Island State Park Commission, 243 N.Y. 15 (1926) (reviewing an Appellate Division order reported at 215 App. Div. 816), the Court of Appeals held that the Commission's 1924 appropriation was illegal because the $200,000 the Legislature had appropriated for land acquisition "had theretofore been almost exhausted" and the Commission therefore lacked funds "measurably adequate to justify the Commission in proceeding summarily."^[3] Writing for the court, Judge Pound held that "the appropriation of and entry on the lands was illegal when made," so that the individual commissioners — though not the Commission itself, which enjoyed the State's immunity from suit — could be restrained from further waste of the land and held liable in damages.^[3] The court nonetheless made clear that a properly funded appropriation would be lawful: "the orders should be modified by dismissing the complaint as against the Long Island State Park Commission and its members as such, and otherwise affirmed."^[3]

The Commission evidently obtained adequate funding — plausibly aided by August Heckscher's donation toward the purchase^[2] — and reappropriated the land, because two years later the Court of Appeals revisited the same dispute. In Pauchogue Land Corp. v. Long Island State Park Commission, 248 N.Y. 635 (1928), affirming an Appellate Division judgment reported at 223 App. Div. 733 that had awarded the landowner only nominal damages, the Court of Appeals held simply: "Judgment affirmed, with costs, upon the ground that the property in suit has been lawfully appropriated."^[4] Read together, the two decisions are a rare reported record of the New York Court of Appeals policing — and then approving — Robert Moses' Long Island State Park Commission's use of eminent domain to assemble a South Shore park, on land that both the Court of Appeals and the state's current history of Heckscher State Park identify as the Taylor estate in the Town of Islip.^[3][4][2]

Separately, since October 3, 1978, the Town of Islip's Code has barred civil suits against the town over a defective highway, street, bridge, culvert, sidewalk, crosswalk, traffic sign or signal, or tree "unless written notice of such defective, out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition... was actually given to the Town Clerk or Commissioner of Public Works" and the town failed to act within a reasonable time; a parallel notice requirement applies to snow-and-ice conditions.^[9] The section, codified at § 47A-3 of the Town Code and amended in 1984 and 1985, states that it "supersede[s] in its application to the Town of Islip" the general prior-notice provisions of Town Law § 65-a.^[9]

Government, courts and policing

East Islip has no government of its own; it is an unincorporated hamlet of the Town of Islip, tabulated by the Census Bureau as the East Islip census-designated place.^[16] The Suffolk County Police Department's Third Precinct, based in Bay Shore, patrols it: the precinct's own description states that its officers "provide police services to visitors and residents in the hamlets of Bay Shore, Baywood, Brentwood, Brightwaters, Islip, Central Islip, East Islip, West Islip, and Islip Terrace."^[5] The department lists the Third Precinct's address as 1630 5th Avenue, Bay Shore, and its Community Support Unit's number as (631) 854-7333; the neighboring Fifth Precinct's own description covers only "the eastern portion of Islip Town" together with southern Brookhaven, not East Islip by name, and its area does not overlap the Third Precinct's East Islip listing.^[5][6][7]

Road ownership in East Islip is split among three levels of government: Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway are New York State highways (NY 27 and NY 27A), Carleton Avenue is a Suffolk County road (CR 17), and any remaining local streets are Town of Islip highways subject to the Town's prior-written-notice law at Code § 47A-3.^[10][11][9]