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TBR News Media covers everything happening on the North Shore of Suffolk County from Cold Spring Harbor to Wading River.

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Above, the Setauket Baseball Team. Hub Edwards is in the front row, center. Photo courtesy of TVHS
Photo from TVHS

The Three Village Historical Society had to make the difficult decision to cancel all of its in-person programs and events for the spring and summer. In light of the financial devastation caused by COVID-19, it recently launched a “Safe at Home” t-shirt campaign fundraiser in honor of Hub Edwards to help ensure that it can resume events this fall and continue to provide educational programs for years to come.

This limited run, made-in-the-USA t-shirt features the original 1950s Setauket Baseball Team logo with the words “Safe at Home,” a sentiment we can all relate to during the global pandemic. It is printed in a baseball diamond with Hub’s number on the community team, “24.” He has been riding out this quarantine, “safe at home,” and will be celebrating his 91st birthday later this year.

Hub Edwards: From Chicken Hill to the Three Villages, a man about community

The Three Village Historical Society works within the community to explore local history through education. Educational programs are developed by collecting and preserving artifacts, documents, and other materials of local significance. Ongoing research is conducted about the history of the people who have lived, from earliest habitation to modern times, in the Three Village area. 

A microcosm of the diversity of America, Chicken Hill was only one mile in diameter, but home to many different people, including Indigenous Persons, Eastern and Western European immigrants, and African Americans.  At its most robust, hundreds of people lived on Chicken Hill. Notable residents, such as Carlton “Hub” Edwards, called the neighborhood home. Chicken Hill and its residents continue to influence the Three Villages. 

Edwards was born in Stony Brook. When he was four years old, he and his family moved to Chicken Hill. A prolific baseball player, in eighth grade, he pitched for the varsity baseball team. In eleventh grade, he pitched for both the varsity team and the local semi-pro team. In 1950, his three no-hitters won him the attention of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Shortly thereafter, he got two draft notices: one from the Brooklyn Dodgers and one from the government.

After his service in the Korean War, he returned home to Chicken Hill. He met and married Nellie Sands. They lived with Edwards’ widowed mother and extended family in an apartment complex in Chicken Hill; in 1958, they purchased a house in the area formerly known as West Setauket. They still live there today.

Edwards’ baseball talents were fostered and nurtured in Chicken Hill. His maternal uncles played ball; one of them could have gone pro if not for the “color barrier,” according to Edwards. Games were held in the fields near the former location of the rubber factory, as well as at Cardwell’s Corner, and the Setauket School, which was “the best field, because it was level,” says Edwards.

He and Nellie remain pillars of the Three Villages, socially and civically engaged in many causes. For 40 years, he worked as a custodian in the Three Village Central School District before retiring in 2000. He has been a member of the Irving Hart American Legion Post for 64 years, and in non-pandemic times, speaks every Sunday at Three Village Historical Society’s exhibit, Chicken Hill: A Community Lost to Time.

To support the Society by buying a “Safe at Home” t-shirt, visit www.tvhs.org. T-shirts sell for $25 plus shipping. Shirts are available in 6 different colors, come in sizes Small to 4X and are proudly made in America. The fundraiser runs through Friday, July 31. 100% of the proceeds will be used to help support and fund the Three Village Historical Society’s education programs.

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Generous Long Islanders have been finding ways to lend a helping hand to staff at Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack who have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle, as well as Gurwin residents who are missing their loved ones due to the “No Visitation” mandate issued by the New York State Department of Health in March.

16-year-old Melville resident Emily Rind created 370 care packages filled with puzzles, word search books, activities and sundry items to help keep Gurwin’s residents entertained and engaged, as part of her “Put a Smile on a Senior Campaign.”

Rind, who was unable to visit her own grandmother due to New York State’s COVID-19 Stay-At-Home Order, said she could only imagine how seniors at Gurwin must feel not being able to see their loved ones. “I reached out to Gurwin to see which items were most needed, and then posted flyers around town to collect supplies,” said Emily. Affixed to the care packages was a note which read, “I know it must be hard not seeing your family and loved ones, so I hope this will brighten your day and put a SMILE on your face.”

Melville Girl Scout Troop 3650

In another show of support for Gurwin healthcare workers, fifth graders in Melville Girl Scout Troop 3650 dedicated their Bronze Award project to providing handmade personal protective equipment (PPE) for the staff. Troop members created face shields using 3D printers, as well as masks and ear guards, items that were in scarce supply during the onset of the pandemic.

“In these challenging times when our staff are working their hardest to protect the well-being of those in their care, and when are residents are missing their families, the thoughtfulness of people in our local community like Emily and the Scouts in Troop 3650 really make a difference in helping to keep morale and spirits high,” said Nicole Hopper, Director of Therapeutic Recreation at Gurwin.

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Goroff, center, won out amongst this year's slate of Democratic contenders to run against Lee Zeldin in November. Photo from Three Village Democratic Club

By Kyle Barr and David Luces

After nearly two weeks of anticipation since ballots were first cast, Stony Brook University scientist Nancy Goroff has come out on top of a slate of Democratic contenders running for the 1st Congressional District. She will run against U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1) in November.

With votes still to be certified, officials at the Suffolk County Board of Elections confirmed Goroff won by a margin of 630 with 17,905 votes, after all absentee ballots were finished counting Thursday, July 9. Last year’s Democratic contender Perry Gershon came out with 17,275 while Bridget Fleming, a Suffolk County legislator from Sag Harbor, finished with 13,696. Gregory Fisher had 773 total votes.

Goroff congratulated both Gershon and Fleming for the race, and extolled this year’s turnout of being nearly double that of 2018.

In her message to voters, Goroff also said that Zeldin had put “hyperpartisan spin over science and over the needs of our community.”

Gershon, on Twitter, congratulated Goroff on her winning the primary, adding, “I am confident that Nancy will offer real solutions.”

“It was an honor working to be your representative in Congress and I am very sorry I will not be our party’s torchbearer in November,” Gershon wrote on his campaign Facebook page. “I will be
honored to do whatever I can to assure Nancy’s victory.”

Goroff, 52, has been chair of SBU’s chemistry department until taking a leave of absence to campaign. She is also President of Gallery North’s board of trustees and lives in Stony Brook.

This post will be updated when comments from Zeldin and Fleming become available.

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Photo by David Ackerman

When The New York Times recently published an editorial titled “Don’t Cancel That Newspaper Subscription,” it caught our attention. Not just because of the subject matter — anything about the general decline of local newspapers is, of course, something we’re very concerned about — but because of the struggles each reporter and editor faces while trying to do their jobs.

The beginning of the editorial tells the story of John Seigenthaler, initially a young reporter with The Tennessean who saved the life of a man he was interviewing back in the 1950s. Seigenthaler went on to become editor and then publisher for the local paper and was at the forefront of civil rights coverage in the heart of the segregated South. However, the piece is not a love letter to the local papers of the 20th century; it’s a cry for help for the publications of today.

The editorial touches on how newspapers and their newsrooms have become smaller over time, even before the coronavirus pandemic diminished the amount of advertising, the main source of revenue papers rely on. Over the years, local publications have been suffering as more and more readers take to the internet to get their daily or weekly dose of news. It also doesn’t help that the false moniker of “fake news” is thrown around by too many without a care for the consequences such an impetuous statement can create.

According to the editorial, newsrooms across the country lost half their journalists between 2008-19. Citing a recent Business Insider article, the writer Margaret Renkl, said “a staggering” 7,800 journalists lost their jobs in 2019.

The writer goes on to tell the story of how The Tennessean recently ran an ad that many found appalling and racist, but she urged people not to cancel their subscriptions. She not only cited how the publisher quickly tried to rectify the situation by pulling it from future editions and firing the sales manager that approved it, but she pointed out many other things, too. Despite the extreme lack of judgment in placing the ad, even with a shortage of journalists due to cutbacks over the years, the paper still covers and publishes a variety of topics that show it is still doing everything in its power to maintain a balanced and reputable publication.

We get this. There have been times when some may not have been pleased with an article, letter or editorial in our newspapers. That is perfectly fine, and we invite reasoned criticism from all in our letters to the editor. But as Renkl wrote in her editorial, “As the ‘first rough draft of history’ journalism will always be prone to mistakes.” We, perhaps beyond any other industry, not only invite justified review of our papers, but we also actively try to improve, working many, many hours to try to get the story of local happenings. We cannot be everywhere and cover everything, but we do our best.

Canceling your subscription to a newspaper only hastens the death of journalism. We’ve written it before on this page, and we’ll put it out there again: If newspapers and journalists didn’t exist, who would tell you what leaders are up to? Who would be there to challenge their responses when something doesn’t sound quite right? And this is even more important with our local leaders, especially as more news networks focus on the national side of our society.

Without local papers, where would readers go to find out what fun activities are going on right in their own town? Who would celebrate the academic and athletic achievements of our local students?

Unfortunately, the days of local newsrooms brimming over with editors and reporters, who could run out and cover every incident in town, may be over, but pulling out a newspaper from the mailbox or picking one up on the newsstand doesn’t need to end.

Let’s work together to keep local journalism alive. With each subscription, just like with each ad, we are empowered to continue and enabled to cover more of our communities’ activities for the benefit of all.

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Photo depicting where Harrison was when the vehicle struck the protester. Photo from Suffolk County Police Department

Suffolk County Police arrested a man they said allegedly falsely reported that he was struck by a car during a protest in Huntington Station earlier this week.

Keith Harrison, 56, was at a Black Lives Matter protest on Broadway July 6 when a vehicle driven by Anthony Cambareri, of Coram, allegedly struck protesters at around 6:45 p.m.

Police said Harrison allegedly filed a police report, stating he was also struck and was transported to Huntington Hospital.

An investigation by 2nd Squad detectives determined Harrison was not struck. Police provided media with the image show of who they say is Harrison not near where the car originally struck protesters.

He was arrested at his home in Hempstead, at around 4:30 p.m. July 8 and was charged with falsely reporting an incident. He was issued a field appearance ticket and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip July 28.

Another man, Jeremiah Bennett, 26 of East Meadow, was treated for non-life threatening injuries at Huntington Hospital. Bennett alleged on Facebook the vehicle sped up when he came near protesters. Other activists have started a campaign to advocate for more serious charges against Cambareri.

No attorney information for Cambareri is yet available. He is set to appear in front of Suffolk First District Court July 24.

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FIle photo

Suffolk County Police 4th Squad detectives are investigating a motor vehicle crash that killed a man in Smithtown early in the morning July 9.

James Turek was driving a 2007 Nissan Altima eastbound on Route 347, just east of Terry Road, when the vehicle collided with the rear of an eastbound box truck at about 1:15 a.m.

Turek, 33, of Mount Sinai, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The driver of the box truck, an adult male, was transported to the same hospital for evaluation.

Detectives are asking anyone with information on the crash to contact the 4th Squad at 631-854-8452.

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Marine Bravo tows a capsized boat to a ramp in Northport. Photo from Suffolk County Police Department

Suffolk County Police Department Marine Bureau officers rescued five people from the Long Island Sound after their boat overturned the afternoon of July 7.

Marine Bureau officers, Dave Froehlich and Patrick Ennis, aboard Marine Bravo, responded to a 911 call for a capsized boat in the Long Island Sound just off the coast of Crab Meadow Beach at about 4:40 p.m. Upon arriving, the officers found five men standing on the underside of a recreational 21-foot Pro-Line vessel that overturned after being struck by a wave some 20 minutes earlier.

Three of the passengers, who were wearing life vests, were able to swim to Marine Bravo. Froehlich and Ennis threw a flotation device to the remaining two men, who were not wearing life jackets.

All five men were evaluated on the scene and were determined not to be injured, police said. The capsized vessel was towed to a boat ramp in Northport.

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Suffolk County police car. File photo

Suffolk County Police today arrested a man after he struck two Black Lives Matter protesters in Huntington Station June 6.

Anthony Cambareri was operating a 2018 Toyota RAV4 westbound on Broadway when he allegedly struck two protesters who were standing in the roadway at approximately 6:45 p.m. The pedestrians were transported to Huntington Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Cambareri was not injured and the vehicle was impounded for a safety check.

Cambareri, 36, of Coram, was charged with assault third degree. He was issued a Desk Appearance Ticket and will be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip at a later date.

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File photo

Suffolk County Police 6th Squad detectives are investigating an incident during which a man was found unresponsive in a pool in Stony Brook July 5.

Sixth Precinct police officers responded a home on Harmon Court at approximately 2 p.m. after Anthony Leo was found unresponsive in a pool outside the residence.

Leo, 78, of Freeport, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was listed in critical condition.

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Northport High School. File photo

By Leah Chiappino

In light of graduation season, Northport High School has named Peter DeTolla and Alea Brummel valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

Peter DeTolla

Like all members of the Class of 2020, both students have attempted to rise to the challenge of celebrating senior year in the face of a pandemic, while mourning the loss of classic senior moments, such as prom and traditional graduation.

“I definitely would have preferred to have finished my senior year in school with all of my classmates, but I am trying to make the best of the situation,” Brummel said. “While I am sad that I didn’t get many of the opportunities I would have had if we had been in school, I am extremely grateful for the efforts our principal Mr. Danbusky and all of the other staff and teachers at Northport High School who have made efforts to ensure we get a special ending to our senior year such as lawn signs or the drive-by parade we had.”

“The pandemic was really a slap in the face, as everyone in the Class of 2020 missed out on the best part of high school,” DeTolla added. “However, my school made a great effort to make us feel appreciated and I thank them for that.”

DeTolla finished high school with a 102.78 grade point average and plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall, with hopes of becoming a mechanical engineer.

The valedictorian was involved in Students for 60,000, a Northport High School-based service organization dedicated to helping the needy. Through the club, DeTolla went on a service trip to Nicaragua, which he says was a highlight of his high school experience. “My experience in Nicaragua as a part of Students for 60,000 is something I’ll never forget,” he said. “I’ve become so appreciative of the life I have, and those trips are a big reason for that. The memories and friends I made there are truly remarkable.”

DeTolla added that another highlight from high school was beating Ward Melville High School “on their home turf,” at a record-breaking lacrosse game.

“It was a euphoric feeling that I share with every member of the team,” he said.

One of four children, DeTolla said he grew up in a close, well-rounded family, something he attributes to his success.

“My mother and father, Aimee and Peter, raised me to be a balanced individual with a strong work ethic and kind spirit,” he said. “Our family is very close, and I can’t imagine not being a part of it … I would like to thank every teacher, coach, older cousin and any other role model in my life for giving me the tools to succeed.”

Alea Brummel

Brummel, who earned a 101.62 GPA, is headed to Baylor University in the fall to study chemistry and mathematics on a pre-med track, with the hopes of working in sports medicine. For the salutatorian, it was her combined love of sports and science that led her on this path. At Northport, she was the head student athletic trainer and was able to assist the district’s athletic trainer in treating and rehabilitating injured student-athletes. The times when she was working directly on the football field, she said, were some of her favorite memories from high school.

“I am a huge football fan, and it was awesome to not only go to games but to also get to work as a student trainer for the games,” she said. “It was an amazing experience to be on the field with the players, and I am hoping to potentially pursue a career in sports medicine so it was incredible to get to see what the atmosphere is like.”

Despite her school and training commitments, Brummel also was involved in community service through her church. For the past two years, she has gone on a service trip to the Dominican Republic over February break.

Brummel said she has loved growing up in Northport and “had an amazing experience at Northport High School.” She praised all of her “amazing teachers,” but gave special thanks to her AP Chemistry teacher, Don Strasser, as his class was a major factor in Brummel choosing chemistry as a major. She said her math teachers likewise fueled her passion for mathematics, and that she is deeply grateful to her mentors in the sports medicine program, Tracey Braun and Shawn Scattergood. Brummel thanked her family for “always being incredibly supportive of me and always being there for me.”

She advised next year’s senior class to take the time to cherish senior year.

“Make sure you take advantage of all of your opportunities and make sure to have fun and enjoy your senior year,” she said. “This year especially has shown us, not everything is guaranteed to happen as expected, so make the most of what you experience — go to the game, go to the dance, go out with your friends.”

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