The preservation of the Bittner Property was celebrated with Jacqueline Bittner at the home of Marion Gotbetter and Carmen Ramis on April 25th, 2008. The Town of Southold and the County of Suffolk acquired the 57 acre Sound front property, located on the north side of Sound View Avenue in Peconic, from Jacqueline Bittner on April 7, 2008.
The total purchase price was $13,123,110 and was a partnership between the Town of Southold and the County of Suffolk. The County contributed $6,561,555 from the County Legacy Fund. The Town contributed $5,096,820 from the Community Preservation Fund, in addition to a $1,464,735 federal grant the Town received for the purchase from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coastal Estuarine Land Conservation Program.
The property includes over 1300 feet of road frontage on Soundview Avenue, over 1400 feet along Long Island Sound and a great diversity of habitat and wildlife including regionally rare primary and secondary dunes, freshwater wetlands, wooded areas, cranberries, beach plums, and many other environmentally significant features. The Town and County will be developing a Management Plan, designed in accordance with the environmentally significant nature of the property, to allow for passive open space uses of the property.
North Fork Audubon Society members who have helped out with the Orient Christmas Bird Count in the Southold North sector should be very familiar with this property. Jackie Bittner has always granted NFAS permission to access the property for the CBC counts and it is a wonderful thing to know that this property has now been preserved forever so that future generations can enjoy it.
Back Row: Hosts Carmen Ramis, Marion Gotbetter
Front: Land Preservation Coordinator Melissa Spiro, Jacqueline Bittner