Nathan Hale Nature Preserve civic association members vehemently objected to claims from Vineyard Bay Estates vendors that they had addressed all archeological and ecological issues associated with the Halesite land slated for a subdivision of eight houses. They petitioned New York State experts to oversee the process of determining the land’s true archeological sensitivity.
The vendor’s EEAF claims that a comprehensive archeological assessment was undertaken on June 23, two days before the author of the document was visibly surprised at the testimony of NHNP members regarding New York State’s designation of the land as archeologically sensitive. However, neighbors who took photos of the young men who climbed over the orange fencing erected by developers, emphatically stated that the “archeologists” observed seemed to be day laborers, and carried no scientific equipment or company identification, leaving without soil samples.
The vendor digitally marked a map of the land as “verifying” 55 test pit locations, claiming these were tested but lacked archeological findings. However, neighbors report the group of men were visible on the land for under an hour, digging indentations less than 8 inches deep – nowhere near the depth required to find, verify or preserve archeological artifacts or funerary remains.
NHNP’s plea additionally pointed out the developer’s vendors bypassed submitting “evidence” to the New York State scientist/archeologist with deep and recent familiarity with archeological artifacts associated with Native Americans in Long Island region.
The complete letter from NHNP outlining all objections is available here.
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