Suffolk County History
2003 American Community Survey Data Profile Highlights:
Total population - 1,437,766 (Male 706,031 - Female - 731,735)
Under 5 years - 95,927
18 years and over - 1,074,726
65 years and over - 164,433
White - 1,230,369
Black or African American - 105,063
American Indian and Alaska Native - 2,402
Asian - 44,195
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander - 0
Some other race - 39,990
Two or more races - 15,747
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) - 180,573
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2003 American Community Survey
PROFILE OF SUFFOLK COUNTY
Suffolk County comprises 1000 square miles of eastern two-thirds of Long Island.
Long Island itself extends 120 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, East from New York
City. The distance from the Nassau County border to Montauk Point is 86 miles.
At Suffolk County's widest point the distance from Long Island Sound to the
southern shore is 26 miles.
Long Island was formed during the Pleistocene Era when the earth warmed and the
massive glaciers then covering the area melted, leaving glacial moraines of rock
and soil deposits which shaped the island. Extending back 10,000 years and up to
the 17th century, the island was inhabited by numerous small groups of
Algonquins having a language and culture throughout the Middle Atlantic region
and what is now New England. Historians estimate the native population to have
been no more than 6,000 (In 1994 there were approximately 1,400,000 residents of
Suffolk.) The Algonquins fished and harvested shellfish at the shore and hunted
the inland wilderness. From clam shells and whelk they chiseled wampum, the
currency of eastern natives and, in the 17th century, adopted as money by
colonists.
The Dutchman, Adrian Block, the first explorer to touch land at Montauk point in
1614, encountered native Americans. The first white resident was Lion Gardiner,
who settled in 1639 on the Island between the north and south forks. Gardiner's
Island still bears his family name.
English colonists crossed Long Island Sound from Connecticut and Massachusetts
colonies, founding Southold and southampton (1640), East Hampton (1648), Shelter
Island (1652), and Setauket, in Brookhaven (1655). Dutch settlers moved eastward
from Manhattan Island. By the mid-1600s the Dutch had ceded control of eastern
Long Island to the English.
In the 1670s, James, Duke of York, who owned Long Island, appointed Thomas
Dongan to govern it. At a gathering of colonial representatives, the "Charter of
Liberties and Privileges" was adopted (1 November 1683), establishing Suffolk
county as a political entity and as one of the 12 original counties of the
Province of New York, and laying the foundation for the State's present
political subdivisions and governmental structure. The County was occupied by
the British for the seven years of the Revolutionary War, from 1776 to 25
November 1783.
From the first years of colonization, the heavily wooded forests provided wood
which Long Islanders cut and shipped as cordwood and as board footage for local
ship and home builders. As the land was cleared, the rich acreage was farmed.
Fishing and shipbuilding were other early industries. Until the 1850s whaling
was an important source of income.
Faring remains a staple of eastern Long Island commerce, although strawberries,
cabbage, potatoes, pumpkins and sod acres are giving way to horse farms and
vineyards. Its quaint historic villages, rocky north shore beaches and calm
waters, the white sand and breakers off Fire Island, and the dependable winds
and safe harbors for sailing make tourism a major Suffolk County industry. In
the 1930s the County became the site of large-scale suppliers to the U.S.
defense and aerospace industries. For example, Grumman Corporation played an
important role in developing high-technology jet planes, such as the Navy F14
fighter, as well as the lunar module (LEM) which first landed men on the moon in
1969. After World War I, Brookhaven National Laboratory, a research institution
administered by Associated Universities Inc. and funded by the Federal
Government, was established on the site of Camp Upton in Yaphank. Its scientists
develop peaceful uses of atomic energy. High technology centers make Suffolk
County sixth in the nation in the production of radio and television
communications equipment and aircraft manufacture.
Since World War II, Long Island has epitomized the phenomenon of growing
suburbia. In 1955, mass-produced housing developments, along with new major
institutions of learning, contributed to Suffolk County's population explosion.
Foremost among the latter is the State University of New York at Stony Brook,
which opened on a 1000-acre campus in 1962. Its Health Science Center and
18-story University Hospital became Long Island's tallest buildings in 1976. For
some, the Island's bucolic pleasures are offset by new problems accompanying
population growth: disappearing farms replaced by housing developments,
strip-zoning along once pastoral roads, dependence on the automobile,
overcrowded roadways, possible effects of pollution of inland and coastal
waters, and mounting waste-disposal needs.
Long Island's leading newspaper, Newsday, founded by Alicia Paterson in 1940 in
Hempstead, started a Suffolk edition in 1944. The paper features investigative
news coverage of local public officials and institutions, up-to-the-minute
sports, and coverage of world and national affairs.
SUFFOLK COUNTY CHARTER
Until1960, Suffolk County, consisting of the ten towns of Babylon, Brookhaven,
East Hampton, Huntington, Islip, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown,
Southampton, and Southold, was governed by a Board of Supervisors, with each
town represented by its elected supervisor. This Board was responsible for
County Business, and each supervisor was accountable for the affairs of his
individual town government. In 1954, the Board of Supervisors appointed a
committee to study alternative forms of government for the rapidly growing
County. After several attempts to write a charter in 1956 and 1957 proved
unsatisfactory, a group of citizens formed the Suffolk County Citizens Charter
Committee in the summer of 1957. The document they drafted became the basis for
the charter approved by the voters of Suffolk County in 1958. Approval by the
New York State Legislature followed, and the Charter went into effect on 1
January, 1960.
The 1960 Charter provided for a new administrative officer, the County
Executive, while retaining the Board of Supervisors as the legislative body.
County administration was centralized and streamlined, and a County police
department was created.
In 1967, the Board of Supervisors enacted resolutions establishing the Suffolk
County Charter Revision Commission, a group of private citizens appointed by the
presiding officer of the Board of Supervisors and the County Executive. They
were to update the charter so that it would meet more efficiently the needs of
the rapidly expanding County. Coincidentally, in 1968 the U.S. Supreme Court
mandated that the one-man, one-vote principle be applied to County Government.
Therefore, the Charter Revision Commission proposed the apportionment of the
County into 18 districts of equal population, and the election of one
representative from each of the districts to constitute the County Legislature,
replacing the Board of Supervisors. Other important revisions accepted by the
voters in 1970 included delineated and separated functions of the County
Legislature and the County Executive and changes in the budget and capital
programs. With voter approval of the Environmental Preservation Act in 1970s it
became the County's basic policy to conserve and protect its natural resources,
the quality of its environment, its natural scenic beauty and to encourage
conservation of its agricultural lands, and acquire land and waters for the
County nature reserves, and Historic Trust. Amendments in 1976 and subsequent
years have updated this act.
In 1972 voters approved an amendment that gave the County Planning Department
the power to review and approve or deny changes, variances, special permits or
subdivision plans on property within 500 feet of the shoreline.
In addition to those Amendments, every Local Law that is passed becomes part of
the Charter. The Laws of Suffolk County include the Charter, Administrative
Code, Local Laws, Acts, Resolutions, Rules and Regulations, and Codes. Copies of
the updated Suffolk County Charter are placed in all public Libraries in the
County.
Source:http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/ |
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