Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy ends prescription services

Shelter Island’s only pharmacy stopped filling prescriptions on Tuesday, frustrating town seniors who rely on the drugstore and forcing town officials to scramble to help residents secure medications elsewhere.

The Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy closed the pharmacy side of its business at 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to Town Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams. Soloviev Group, the Manhattan-based real estate firm that owns the pharmacy, notified customers about the change more than a week ago, the town said on its website.

“The pharmacy has experienced significant operating deficits in recent years and has absorbed these losses while continuing to serve the needs of the community,” the company said in a news release.

“Despite extensive efforts to identify a new operator to lease or purchase the business, it became clear that the financial position made an acquisition difficult to bring to fruition,” the release said.

The company did not return an interview request made through its public relations firm. The store's general manager declined to comment.

The pharmacy serves the town’s year-round population of more than 3,000, as well as its summer population that exceeds 12,000, Brach-Williams told Newsday. The town has a sizable senior population that relies on the drugstore, she added.

Prescriptions are being transferred to Southold Pharmacy, according to a letter sent to the pharmacy’s customers and published on the town's website. The drugstore in Southold Town on Route 25 is a ferry ride and 10-minute drive from Shelter Island.

The store, which sports an iconic green sign reading "SODA — DRUGS" in white letters, will continue to operate its soda fountain and lunch counter, Brach-Williams said. It also will sell over-the-counter medications and other products. The pharmacy dates back more than a century, Newsday has reported.

Frustrating afternoon

Outside the pharmacy on Grand Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, a handful of people who streamed in and out expressed a mixture of sadness and anger their prescriptions could no longer be filled after the day was over.

Anita Cicero, 77, a resident who owns a local barbershop with her husband, said she was glad that other pharmacies on the mainland were helping seniors to get their medications.

“All the other pharmacies are stepping up with deliveries. So we make the best of it,” Cicero said. “You give and take to live on an island.”

John Colby, a former Dering Harbor mayor who picks up medications from the pharmacy, said it was essential.

“A lot of elderly folks are around; a lot of people depend on the pharmacy for prescriptions and medications," he said. "It’s also a place to meet and greet, people come and say hello, buy the newspaper, and it’s been part of the community since the 1880s.”

Town steps in

To help seniors adjust, the town plans to offer weekly car rides to local pharmacies, help with the transfer of prescriptions to other drugstores on the East End and show seniors how to sign up for mail-away service, said Kelly Brochu, manager of Shelter Island's senior center.

“People are sad, and I'm sad that it's gone for them,” Brochu said in an interview. “They're so used to having a pharmacy here — and it was so quick, and now it's gone.”

The town’s shopping assistance program, which delivers groceries for homebound seniors on Shelter Island, also will help residents pick up their prescriptions, Brach-Williams said. Sag Harbor Pharmacy will offer free home delivery for prescriptions five days a week, she added.

Town officials are brainstorming longer-term solutions. One idea, Brach-Williams said, is for the town to lease space at one of its buildings to a pharmacy at minimal cost. “We would charge $1 a year rent. So that would at least take out that component of the financial model that's needed for someone to succeed,” she said.

Nancy Green, co-chair of the town's health and wellness committee, called the pharmacy's closure "devastating" and a "very serious crisis," particularly for seniors.

"This has left the community really shattered," Green said in an interview.

Soloviev Group is one of the North Fork's largest landowners, Newsday has reported. It also owns several properties on Shelter Island, including the Chequit Inn.

At the Shelter Island Senior Center on Tuesday, Robert Springsteen, 84, said “nobody was happy.” Springsteen said both he and his wife go to the pharmacy frequently.

“As of today, we can’t do that anymore,” he said. “Going off island, it’s a ferryboat ride, 20 minutes, and the cost of that on top of the drugs is going to be a hardship for many people on the island.”

“We’re a very close community, so to lose anything where everybody goes is a real pain in the neck,” Springsteen said.