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See Off With A Head Count
Counting heads in New York's smallest village - Dering Harboron Shelter Island - might seem like an easy trick, but the holidaycharacter of the village complicates things. The result is that the U.S. Census Bureau credited Dering Harbor with only 10 people in its latest count, whereas estimates by Long Island Lighting Co. and residents put the total at 15 to 17.
The problem is that the village, a more or less upscale resort since the 1870s, attracts residents who like to sample different places and can afford to do so. Among the owners of the 31 nice houses in Dering Harbor, few stay through the year and even those may decide from time to time to go to Florida or Europe for a while.
"It would take a genius to figure out what the population is," said Clifton Phalen, who at 82 is enjoying year-round living on an island he used to admire when he cruised by in his 40-foot yawl, on the way from Plandome to Nantucket and points north.
But a consensus of people who spend most of their time in the village is that nine houses have year-round residents. Most of those are retired couples who settled in after years of coming to the village on holiday. One or two are persons living alone.
So the figure given by the village clerk,...