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Times of Huntington-Northport

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Photo by Rita J. Egan

The race between Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini (D) and prosecutor Ray Tierney, who is running on the Republican and Conservative lines, has been a contentious one. At the forefront, Tierney has questioned whether Sini has been as tough on crime as the DA himself has said, especially regarding the MS-13 gang.

The two sat down with TBR News Media’s editorial staff Oct. 11 to discuss several issues including the biggest ones facing Suffolk County.

Meet the candidates

Sini was first elected to the DA’s office in 2017 and is running for his second term. His background includes being an assistant attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York where he ultimately specialized in violent crimes, which included prosecuting murder trials. He went on to serve as Suffolk’s assistant deputy county executive for public safety and was appointed to the county police commissioner position in January of 2016.

“I love my job,” Sini said. “I wanted to serve in my own backyard.”

Photo by Rita J. Egan

Tierney also grew up in Suffolk County. He began his law career in the Suffolk DA’s office under DA James Catterson (R).

The challenging candidate left the DA’s office in 1999 and went on to work for a private firm and returned to the DA’s office in 2002 and remained for another six years.

He then worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York as an assistant attorney for more than 11 years.

He left the office in 2019 to become an executive assistant district attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s office where he was in charge of the violent criminal enterprises bureau, crime strategies unit and body worn camera unit.

In order to run for Suffolk County DA, Tierney had to leave the Brooklyn office and is currently Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.’s chief counsel for compliance and enforcement.

Statistics

Sini said crime since he became police commissioner and even as DA has gone down each year. He said since he’s been in office violent crimes are down by about 30% and overall crimes more than 20%. He added year-to-date crime is down 7%.

“We’ve been very effective in keeping Suffolk safe, and also moving the criminal justice system in the right direction, but we knew that we had to reform the DA’s office and that’s why I ran initially,” he said.

Weeks before his election Sini’s predecessor, former DA Tom Spota (D), was arrested. Sini said the office has been reformed in various ways. There has also been the hiring of more than 100 people, an increase in diversity and an overhauling of the training program.

Tierney disputed Sini’s crime statistics saying shootings are up in Suffolk County, and he wants to use his experience in crime strategies to bring those numbers down.

“Statistics can be manipulated,” Tierney said. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to index the crimes.”

Tierney has criticized Sini’s approach during his campaign. He said the DA’s office will announce numerous indictments via press releases but he said the office doesn’t send out as many announcements about convictions.

“I don’t dispute for a fact that he has very splashy arrests,” Tierney said. “I’m talking about results.”

He also criticized Sini for the number of times his office has used plea bargaining, giving the example of a drug dealer that Sini charged with a top count in 2021. However, he said, a year earlier that same dealer was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance and then allowed to plea.

“If he’s a kingpin in 2021, why do you give him a misdemeanor in 2020?” Tierney said.

Sini said pleading in certain cases is not unusual, and the DA’s office may not have the evidence needed in 2020.

MS-13 gang

Photo by Rita J. Egan

Tierney said Sini talks about the biggest MS-13 gang busts and asked for defendants’ names, pleas and sentences. He also asked why not one was charged with murder. 

“If you have a crime strategies unit, if every two weeks you’re letting the statistics come out the stats will speak for themselves,” the prosecutor said.

Tierney said doing so is an example of being independent from the police and county executive.

Sini said his office has been part of one of the largest MS-13 takedowns, where 96 people were indicted in one county. The case involved three years of wiretapping investigations. The takedown netted a multitude of arrests, and Sini said his office is now prosecuting the cases and is having a lot of success.

The DA said the reason why many were charged with murder conspiracy instead of murder was because law enforcement was able to stop the killings from happening due to the wiretaps used in the investigation.

“Our detectives would go out and stop the violence, and then we charged the defendants in some cases with murder conspiracy,” he said. “We stopped 10 murders from happening that way.”

He said the office, in addition to murder conspiracy pleas, has received pleas to assault and criminal possession of weapons, which have significant sentences attached to them.

“We’re making a difference in terms of MS-13 on Long Island, there’s no denying that,” Sini said. “And it’s not just the DA’s office, and we’re not suggesting otherwise. It’s a collaborative effort from the local police department, all the way up to our federal government.”

Tierney said there were 46 gang members on the indictment, and each one was responsible for two murders, which Sini interrupted and said it was murder conspiracy.

“Now he said he thwarted 10 murders,” Tierney said. “Now how exactly did he thwart those 10 murders? By arresting them? Well, the manner in which he arrested them was, he had this big splashy takedown after two years and then he arrested all 96 at once. So, in order for that statement to be true, that would have meant that as he prepared his press release, as he called all the media, as he got everything all ready for the takedown, the night before 10 murders became apparent. And then he took those individuals down.”

Tierney said he has a problem with that style as “that’s not how it works when we do our MS-13 indictments.”

“We take them down as soon as possible,” he said. “We don’t care about the indictment. We care about the results, and you can’t thwart 10 murder conspiracies, all at once, it’s an impossibility. There’s no way that 10 murder conspiracies come to fruition at the exact date of the takedown.”

Tierney said Sini seals his cases because he doesn’t want the public to see the plea bargains that he has given.

Sini said that was false since indictments are public, except for certain cases that may need to be sealed due to cooperators or under certain circumstances, and it’s appropriate to do so.

Drug epidemic

Sini said the drug epidemic has been one of the most significant public safety problems for more than a decade. He said the approach is investing in prevention, treatment, recovery and law enforcement.

“Law enforcement even plays a role in treatment, too, because you can create and implement diversion programs, where you get low-level offenders who are suffering from addiction into treatment programs,” he said.

He added drug offenders also need to be aggressively investigated and prosecuted.

“We’ve done that,” he said. “I’ll give you two examples, both in terms of bringing operators and major trafficker charges the top felony counts, these are significant prosecutions, and we’re leading the state on doing that.”

He said the sentences can be 25 years to life. 

Tierney said he feels the most significant public safety problem is the rise of crime in the county, whether gun violence or the opioid epidemic.

He added it’s important to keep an eye on the U.S. southern border as powder fentanyl is being brought into the country. The powder form is sprinkled into cocaine unbeknownst to the buyer.

Summing up

Sini said that Tierney has criticized him for not having as much trial experience as he, and said that’s just an issue of age, since he is younger than the challenger. The DA said that while prosecuting is part of the job there is more to it.

“We’re running to be a CEO of a major law firm,” he said. “I have significant managerial experience with a track record. He has zero.”

Sini said he believes his office has done “great work on a number of different fronts,” and he’s running on his record.

“We brought some of the most significant cases in the region on a variety of public safety fronts — the drug epidemic, gang violence, human trafficking, environmental crime.”

Tierney said he never thought he would get involved in the political process.

“I think what we’re seeing is our leadership is gaslighting us,” he said. “We’re being told everything’s great, everything’s wonderful. They are talking points.” 

Tierney said the main function of the office is to prosecute.

“We are dismissing cases,” he said. “We’re not indicting cases. This is the management of the office, but to say you’re a CEO and a manager’s office, it is the prosecutor’s office. We need someone to prosecute those cases.”

The winner of the DA race will hold office for the next four years.

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From left, 8 1/2-year-old Dan Barsi, Jennifer Barsi, Maggie Barsi (age 4), James Barsi, and Lily Barsi (age 7)

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

If your children are under the age of 12 and the Food and Drug Administration soon approves a COVID-19 vaccine, you’ll have many people to thank for the opportunity to return them to a more normal, and safer, childhood, including four-year-old Maggie, seven-year-old Lily and eight-and-a-half-year-old Dan Barsi.

The three siblings, who live in East Setauket with their parents James and Jennifer Barsi, recently participated in a clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine at Stony Brook Hospital. While the children don’t know whether they received vaccinations for the virus or the placebo, they are three of numerous children who volunteered to test the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to make sure it was safe before health care providers administer it to the broader population.

Their children “knew what they were signing up for,” said Dr. James Barsi, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. “It’s something to help other people.”

Indeed, the community benefits from volunteers like the Barsis, who participate in clinical trials that evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment, help determine the correct doses, and reveal potential side effects before the rest of the population gets the COVID-19 vaccine or any other medicine or therapeutic intervention.

“We would never make advances in medicine without families — adults and children — volunteering to participate in clinical trials,” said Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.

Some treatments for a range of illnesses or conditions look promising in the earlier stages of clinical development, such as phase 1 or phase 2. When they reach phase 3, during which researchers provide medicine to a much larger volunteer population, they sometimes fall short of expectations.

“Companies will tout drugs as the next best thing,” Dr. Nachman said. “When they get into phase 3, they are not better than standard therapy.”

Clinical trials on even an ineffective drug or one that produces side effects, however, can help pharmaceutical companies and health care providers by signaling what these professionals should look for in future treatments, Dr. Nachman added.

While volunteers of any age take risks by participating in these studies, they also have considerable medical oversight.

“They are well protected,” Dr. Nachman said. “When you participate in a clinical trial, you don’t just have two sets of eyes on you; you have 100 sets of eyes.”

Volunteers for clinical trials not only take some risk before everyone else in the community, but they also experience regular testing and monitoring.

The Barsi children, for example, had to have blood work and nose swabs. “We call it a brain swab,” Jennifer Barsi said. “The kids are so excited about getting a treat afterwards, but they still have to do the hard thing.”

Health care professionals throughout Long Island shared their appreciation for clinical trial volunteers. Without them “none of these innovative therapies and drugs would exist,” said Stephanie Solito, Research Manager of the Oncology Service Line at Catholic Health, which includes Smithtown-based St. Catherine of Siena and Port Jefferson-based St. Charles Hospital.

When Daniel Loen, Catholic Health’s Vice President of Oncology Services, takes any medicine, he appreciates that patients were “willing to sacrifice something or take on some kind of increased risk to get on a trial for the good of humanity and medicine.”

As for the specific COVID-19 pediatric trials, Dr. Nachman said parents and children have to approve to participate. Doctors talk with children in an age-appropriate way about these clinical trials.

Dan Barsi was born at 25 weeks old. He stayed in the hospital for several months and is now a healthy child.

Jennifer and James felt that this was their opportunity to give back to the next generation. The children who participated in clinical research before Dan was born helped make it possible for him to get the best treatment, and now they feel they’re doing the same thing.

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Photos by Julianne Mosher

Residents in the Town of Huntington will have three options for their new supervisor Nov. 2. 

Two councilmen and a newcomer are on the ballots, each bringing their own expertise to the table. 

With current town Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R) not seeking reelection, Huntington will have a new supervisor in January. Two town council seats are also up for grabs in next month’s election.

Ed Smyth (R), of Lloyd Harbor, has served as town councilman for four years and is now seeking the top position, while councilman Eugene Cook, of Greenlawn, is running as a third-party Independent candidate. Cook is a former Republican who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for supervisor. 

Democratic candidate Rebecca Sanin, president and CEO of nonprofit Health & Welfare Council of Long Island, is seeking supervisor and said her years as a public servant can bring a new perspective to Huntington. 

Eugene Cook

Eugene Cook. Photo by Julianne Mosher

Cook has been a councilman in the town for the last 10 years and is running for supervisor on a Stop LIPA Party line. 

A businessowner of more than 40 years, Cook said he is “strictly business and it’s all about money.”

“We have to run each town and municipality as a business,” he said. “And that hasn’t happened.”

Cook said he has been “very disappointed to see the last four years” because things “haven’t gotten done” during Lupinacci’s term. 

“There is no transparency, and there’s some real problems with that,” he said. 

Cook’s idea for the future of Huntington is working it as a business.

“We have all these great ideas that people want to do, but it costs a lot of money to do that,” he said. “You have to manage the money to get it done.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook closed his construction business and retired. 

“I’ve never been happier,” he said, “And I’ve never been busier.”

As councilman, Cook has “fought tirelessly to hold the line on taxes and spending while maintaining balanced budgets.”

He said that if he takes on the role of supervisor, he will “continue to champion the cause of a better Huntington for the future, while respecting Huntington families, residents, business owners and taxpayers.”

Rebecca Sanin

Sanin, who resides in Huntington Station, said that over the last four years, she has been working on small business and nonprofit sustainability. With her nonprofit experience, she has helped with issues including health equity and hunger relief for Long Island. 

Rebecca Sanin. Photo by Julianne Mosher

“What I’ve seen during COVID-19 is how important it is to have government pull the levers to really improve the quality of people’s lives,” she said. 

Prior to joining Health & Welfare, Sanin was an assistant deputy county executive in Suffolk County, where she led the performance management team. The mother of two daughters chose to raise them here because she loves the community. 

“I love this town,” she said. “I don’t believe that it has been properly managed for the last few years and I’m particularly concerned about the lack of a strong COVID recovery plan in our town and what’s happening with our small businesses.”

Sanin said that she is different than her two opponents because she is currently not an elected official and does not work in the town. 

“I have a fresh set of eyes that I’m bringing to town government and also a very different perspective on how things need to run when it comes to the budget,” she said. 

Ed Smyth

Smyth’s parents moved to Huntington in 1971 and he stayed to raise his four children there, too. Elected to the Huntington Town Board in 2017, he voted to enact term limits and to make the resolution process more transparent to the community. 

He has voted to preserve open space and slow down overdevelopment in downtowns, but his biggest concern was to settle the LIPA lawsuit. 

Now on the ticket for supervisor, Smyth said he is running on an infrastructure platform — focusing on sewers, drainage and roadways. 

“I look at the town as a whole, having been living here my entire life, and I see areas of town that have been neglected that I want to address, particularly Huntington Station,” he said. 

Ed Smyth. Photo by Julianne Mosher

He said that it is “vitally important” to get a sewer line put in from Huntington railroad station south to Walt Whitman Mall, which currently does not have a sewer line. 

“That’s the driving reason why there hasn’t been any capital investment in the Huntington Station area,” he said. “There is federal money available to do that.”

Smyth is a practicing lawyer in Huntington village for the last 24 years. 

He is also a veteran — a former Marine staff sergeant — which he said gives him a different style of management compared to Lupinacci. 

“He has taken a very hands-off approach,” Smyth said. “That’s not my style. I will be very involved with every department and be hands-on.”

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Photo by Julianne Mosher

Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) held a press conference last week, criticizing Democrats over the hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions made by the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association.

Trotta made his case Oct. 21 with paperwork and news clips to back up his claims.

Photo by Julianne Mosher

This comes less than two weeks before the Nov. 2 election, where he attacked District Attorney Tim Sini (D) and County Executive Steve Bellone (D). 

“What we have here is New York State election law that’s being violated over and over again every single day — and it’s costing the taxpayers of this county millions of dollars,” Trotta said. 

According to the legislator, “New York State election law is very clear. All campaign contribu-tions must be voluntary. You cannot force an employee to give you money, but that’s exactly what’s happening here in Suffolk County.”

Trotta said that county union employees are being “forced” to give money and cannot get out of doing so. 

Photo by Julianne Mosher

“They write letters to the district attorney, they write letters to the county executive, the coun-ty comptroller and they don’t stop it,” he said. “And that’s wrong. It corrupts county govern-ment and why does it corrupt county government? Because the unions gain so much power by giving money to certain politicians. They can never be beat.”

A retired Suffolk County police officer himself, Trotta is also seeking reelection next week. 

He recalled that as an SCPD employee, he approved a $1 per paycheck deduction ($26 a year) to go to the PBA. However, he said he never authorized additional funds be given to political campaigns. 

Trotta also said he is just one of two elected officials in the legislature who do not take money from the police union. 

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Pixabay photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

Inside this issue is a treasure trove of first-hand information about the candidates and the issues in the coming election. How do I know? Because we, the different members of the editorial board of Times Beacon Record Newspapers, personally interviewed 25 people running for office across the three towns that we serve: Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington. The offices the candidates are running for are all local, which means that these are the officials who will have the most direct effect on our lives. 

The positions range this year from county legislators to town supervisors, town council, town clerk, district attorney and sheriff. We asked them questions without bias, seeking only to understand who they were, what they believed and what we could expect from each of them, should they be elected — or re-elected, as the case might be. The setting in our conference room was relaxed, and we hoped comfortable, with opponents for each office seated together around the table responding to questions put to them by our editors and reporters. 

Sometimes there were four candidates, sometimes only one who might be running unopposed or against a shadow opponent, but mostly there were two during each session. Most of the time, the hour goes by calmly, but occasionally the opponents get testy with each other — they may even become openly hostile.

At one such session some years ago, one of the candidates invited the other out to the back parking lot “to settle things.” When the other began to take off his jacket, we quickly intervened. But there were no such flare-ups this year. 

The answers were timed in an attempt to get to the main ideas without running on too long. There was ample time at the end for each visitor to tell us anything more that perhaps we hadn’t elicited with our questioning. 

We have written up the details of each interview in a separate article for the election section. And we discuss the candidates at the end of each hour and come to a conclusion for the endorsement. 

Most of the time, the editorial group was unanimous because the choices were fairly direct. But for a couple of races, we talked over the pros and cons of each candidate at length before making the selection. These endorsements are based on both the in-depth interviews and the considerable information we know about the incumbents since we have been covering them closely throughout their terms in office. Of course, after reading the stories, you may or may not agree with our conclusions. Our job is to get you thinking.

The many hours that are given to this task, throughout the month of October, are a service for our readers. We are privileged to enjoy an extended face-to-face time with those standing for election, and we feel an obligation to pass along whatever information, facts and impressions we gather during these sessions. We sincerely hope we help in the sometimes-difficult job of casting a responsible vote.

Each year we include in the election section a sample ballot that we are able to procure from the Suffolk County Board of Elections because readers have told us that it is a great advantage for them to receive the ballot at the voting poll already knowing how it is laid out.

Our editorial board is made up of staffers with different political leanings, but when we put our journalists’ hats on, we try to judge each race strictly on the merits of the opposing candidates. And while it is technically possible for me to be tyrannical about the final selections, that is almost never the case. We decide by majority rule.

Sincere thanks to the talented staff who join in this extra work each year. We truly believe that we are watchdogs for the people, and nowhere is that more necessary than in reporting about government and its office holders. We hope we have helped you, whether you read by newspaper and/or online. Now please vote.  

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Photos from candidates

While the race for Suffolk County legislator in the 18th Legislative District got off to a rocky start with contentious mailers sent by both candidates, the tone was civil during a TBR News Media Zoom debate with candidates Mark Cuthbertson (D), currently serving as Town of Huntington councilman, and Stephanie Bontempi, a newcomer to the political field.

County Legislator William “Doc” Spencer (D-Centerport) has served the district for nearly a decade, but decided not to run this year. He is currently facing charges for allegedly trading oxycodone for sex.

Meet the candidates

Bontempi, who grew up in Sweden and came to the U.S. for college and decided to stay in New York, is a fifth-grade teacher at The Green Vale School in Old Brookville. The wife and mother, of three grown children, has lived in Centerport for 30 years.

She’s the chairperson of Town of Huntington’s Beautification Advisory Council and has been a member of several local organizations. In addition to teaching, she has a degree in finance and two graduate degrees in education-related subjects.

She said with more time on her hands now that her children are grown, she decided to run for office and be a “voice for the people in our community.”

“I’ve seen a decline in our area,” Bontempi said. “Our taxes are going up, roads failing, the environment, water quality and so forth … rather than complain, I want to try to do something about it.”

Cuthbertson has been a town councilman for more than two decades. He grew up in Huntington Station and graduated from Walt Whitman High School. He’s a husband and father of three children. As a councilman as well as an attorney, he said he’s been involved in local government in a public and private capacity. He said he has “good grounding” when it comes to not only town issues but county issues. 

“I really feel that I can bring the breadth of my experience to the county and work with the county executive, who has been a friend for 24 years, to do things for the 18th Legislative District.”

He added he’s proud of helping to preserve and protect more than 1,000 acres of land in the Town of Huntington and contributing to the town’s triple-A bond rating.

County budget

Cuthbertson said there are several things that are good in the proposed Suffolk County budget, including $125 million for wastewater infrastructure which he thinks is key. He also agrees with the $35 million for main street recovery to help businesses hit by COVID-19 and money put aside if the pandemic becomes an ongoing issue.

“I think the good parts of this budget are the reserve funds,” he said. “I think that’s been a key to our success in the Town of Huntington is when you have good years — not just squandering that money on spending — reserving it for things that you have to pay in the future. So, there’s money that’s going toward tax stabilization. There’s money that’s going toward debt service reserve fund and insurance reserve fund, pensions and payouts of employees which are important.” 

Bontempi said one has to be careful when using the term surplus, especially since the county has additional funds due to federal government aid and not taxpayers’ money.

“We have to be very careful with how we utilize this money,” Bontempi said.

She added the county has pulled money from the budget for a long time and money has been taken out from the funds for sewer stabilization and environmental causes.

“I would suggest that we replenish the areas where money has been taken out, definitely,” she said. “I would suggest that we repay some of our debt to lower our interest expenses.”

Bontempi added the county’s Department of Social Services needs more attention. She said the department is overwhelmed and understaffed leading to not having the proper resources to serve the community.

Cuthbertson agreed that being able to staff social services at adequate levels is important.

“We have 7.2% of this county living in poverty, and there are outcomes there that are very difficult and beyond people in poverty, that are in difficult circumstances that need the help of government,” he said.

Suffolk County Police Department

Bontempi said after people’s physiological needs are met the next fundamental need to thrive is safety.

“We need to feel safe in our homes,” she said. “We need to feel safe dropping our children at the school bus. We need to feel safe walking our dogs. So, I am very much a proponent for law enforcement.”

She added because of this she feels police officers should be provided funding for adequate training and to be well equipped.

Cuthbertson said it’s well known that SCPD officers make good money and county residents know “a police officer joins the force and in a short period of time, with overtime, he’s probably making in excess of six figures.”

He added it’s important to continue giving police the resources they need but also to demand accountability. Cuthbertson said it’s important to evolve and embrace “the mental health piece of the police reform plan to embrace other issues.”

It’s important to look at issues in Suffolk County, he added, where studies show Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to get pulled over or be part of an escalated situation.

“Let’s compensate our police adequately and well, but let’s ask that they embrace change and accountability, and I think 99% of the police force do,” Cuthbertson said. “I think it’s a matter of just a cultural shift that hopefully is going on.” 

Sewers

He said with approximately $286 million from the American Recovery Plan, there’s a possibility that some funding will go to Huntington Station sewering. He said there has been a study of the area and the direction the town should go and the best alternatives to connect to an existing sewering system.

“I think by partnering with the county we could affect some really great change for the environment for economic development in one fell swoop,” Cuthbertson said. 

He added they have to do a better job in talking to residents about replacing their septic systems with low-nitrogen units.

Bontempi agreed that sewers are important. She said in addition to Huntington Station, areas north of Route 25A need to be looked at, too. She said higher-density areas and elevated areas have more toxins seeping into the ground and making it to local waterways.

She added the new low-nitrogen septic systems need more work as they are expensive to install, even with the county grant.

“We have to protect our water,” she said. “There is no question about it.”

The two agreed there are difficulties with getting sewers in certain areas of the district due to topography.

William “Doc” Spencer

Both candidates said regarding Spencer they would like to continue his work to help save the environment such as the plastic bag initiative. Bontempi added she applauds his work in saving open space, such as Coindre Hall Park that overlooks Huntington Harbor. Both candidates said Spencer’s work regarding the opioid crisis is also important to continue.

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Candidates for Huntington Town Board, from left, David Bennardo, Sal Ferro, Jennifer Hebert and Joseph Schramm took part in a debate at TBR News Media’s office. Photos by Rita J. Egan

With two seats open on the Huntington Town Board, whoever finds themselves filling those empty positions will have their hands full, whether it’s helping bring business to the town during and after COVID-19 or dealing with water quality issues and shoring up the coastline.

Despite all that, the four candidates vying for the Town Board each said during a relaxed and downright friendly debate within TBR News Media’s office that they want to reestablish a sense of bipartisanship and civility to politics, especially as they look to represent a way forward for Huntington in these uncertain times.

Candidates David Bennardo and Sal Ferro are running on the Republican and Conservative party lines, while Joseph Schramm and Jennifer Hebert have gained the nods of the Democratic and Working Families parties. With current council seats for Ed Smyth (R), who is running for  town supervisor, and Mark Cuthbertson (D), running for county legislator, their seats will be filled by two newcomers in 2022. 

Photo by Rita J. Egan

All candidates agreed that the rising cost of living on Long Island and Huntington is a major issue for everyone. Schramm, who lives in Northport, owns a sports marketing agency that includes high-end soccer clientele. He said he moved his business mostly remote, away from its old office in Manhattan and now bases it in Huntington. He said there are multiple businesses looking to move out from New York like his, and that this is an opportunity for the town to attract them to the North Shore. He would start a committee to specifically look at attracting businesses like other television and production companies.

Ferro, of Commack and the CEO of Alure Home Improvements, agreed that the town should attract new businesses, adding that Huntington has a lot to offer, whether it’s the Melville office corridor, a regional medical center, a large train station and access to the Hauppauge Industrial Park. The town can relay these opportunities by creating zoning where people want to develop.

“Why did Amazon go with Oyster Bay and not Huntington — it was more attractive,” Ferro said. “We’re not attractive, you have to become attractive.”

Bennardo, a Greenlawn resident, recently retired as the superintendent of South Huntington school district. He argued that the town would best be served with certain tax abatements, tax incentives and cutting red tape that restricts businesses from setting up shop, especially in the empty spaces that are already developed throughout the town. He referred to one example as the lengthy wait for pool permits, which not only hurts homeowners, but decreases the number of contracts for businesses who install those pools.

Hebert, who in the past was a nine-year school board member and president of Huntington school district, said she comes from a family of small business owners and that she agreed that there’s a need to support and welcome those large businesses into the town. As for the empty storefronts around town, she would gather experts in current business trends to see where the market is going and find which businesses will survive being in brick and mortar. At the same time, she argued there’s a need for the town to cut down on expenses and potentially hire a grant writer to analyze different new grant-based revenue streams. As well, the town could use an updated master plan.

“I think that Huntington has been going about this in a very haphazard way,” she said. “And, really, what we need is a plan that reflects what our community wants and what we have available for us to do in Huntington.”

Photo by Rita J. Egan

Ferro agreed but added that it’s better to find grant writers specialized in specific arenas like the environment. Further, he said that while COVID has posed a problem for some businesses, it has also proved a boon to some others. The recent closure of the venerable Book Revue in Huntington village was a big blow to the community. Regarding the issue of filling empty storefronts in the town, the home improvements CEO argued that a big problem is rent prices, especially in the village. He said the town needs to look at rent abatements and work with landlords to try and fill those empty storefronts.

Looking at the empty spaces in the Huntington train station parking lot shows that less people are commuting to the city for work, Schramm said. Instead, he argued the town should look at more shared office spaces for small businesses. 

“Let’s not stumble over what’s behind us,” the marketing agency owner said. “We have to reimagine our downtowns, but what we have is a huge new workforce that exists in our town. Let’s figure out a way to leverage it.”

Bennardo also confirmed his support for rent abatements for small businesses, especially since mom-and-pop shops make so little money for the first few years after opening. He said certain regulations, like those that restrict upstairs apartments, could be nixed to better facilitate 

“I don’t see any real thing wrong with using a part of your building for two or three apartments upstairs,” he said. “It’s really what’s going on across the country. They don’t put six-story buildings up, they don’t destroy the integrity of a neighborhood, you don’t even know they’re there.”

Recent reports by environmental groups on Long Island routinely report water quality issues with bays on the North Shore. Particularly the bays in Centerport and Cold Spring Harbor report dangerous lack of oxygen in the water, which has led in part to dangerous algae blooms. 

Photo by Rita J. Egan

Schramm said he would support dredging Northport Harbor, which he said would be “an expensive proposition, but it has a lot of environmental benefits,” especially regarding fish die-offs and hypoxia in the bay waters. Northport also has a bio-filtration FLUPSY program in the works, which will help preserve the oyster population and clean the harbor waterways, and he said he would like to see that expanded to other bays in the Town of Huntington. Other than the bays, Schramm said he would like to see town parks and facilities updated and improved to the same quality as neighboring townships.

Hebert agreed, and shared that she would like to deal with concerns of Centerport and Eaton’s Neck residents about beach erosion and crumbling seawalls. Especially important is getting everybody to sit around the table to confer, with Hebert adding that she doesn’t feel text or even Zoom meetings have facilitated the interactions that actually get things done.

Bennardo said additional issues remain with facilitating upland and downland drainage systems, and that there’s a need now to clean out those drainage systems before they leak into both the aquifer and the bays. The other issue remains cesspools, something all the candidates agreed were antiquated and need to be replaced where they can. “That’s not an area where we can let cost be an argument because it’s our drinking water,” he said. 

Ferro said there are millions of dollars in grant money available to aid in environmental remediation projects within the next several years, and it’s imperative that the town focuses on getting a piece of that pie. He agreed with the other candidates that oysters are a good option for cleaning out bays, adding that regarding the antiquated cesspools, promoting nitrogen-reducing systems where sewers won’t fit is also critical. 

Overall, the candidates confirmed their commitment to seeing a change in the way local government sees the people and, perhaps more introspectively, sees itself. Ferro said he’s more than used to working with electeds on both sides of the aisle. Schramm, as an openly gay man who lives with his life-partner Steve, said he would work toward a more inviting Huntington for everyone. “Our Town Hall needs to start having people provide sign language at Town Board meetings,” he said. “We need to include everybody in our community. We need to be a welcoming Town Hall.”

Around the table, among mutual compliments, Hebert put an emphasis on the need for compromise and a shared sense of consideration for each other. “I would say you have four people here who are representing exactly what you should do to restore trust and leadership,” she said.

Bennardo echoed the sentiment, adding, “We all want to win, but we’ve made a decision that you have to act like an adult. No good compromise ever happens when someone’s calling someone a socialist or Marxist or a fascist or any of that — it’s nonsense.”

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Renderings of the Manor Field Spray Park and Playground.
Renderings of the Manor Field Spray Park and Playground.
Renderings of the Manor Field Spray Park and Playground.
Renderings of the Manor Field Spray Park and Playground.
Renderings of the Manor Field Spray Park and Playground.

Town of Huntington Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci and Deputy Supervisor, Councilman Ed Smyth have announced the Town’s second spray park, at Manor Field Park in Huntington Station, will open in late Spring 2022. 

 “The Manor Field Spray Park along with the new amenities we have coming soon are exciting steps in our plan to revitalize Huntington Station,” said Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci. 

 “In the spring of 2022, the children of Huntington Station will have this first-class spray park in their backyard, along with a brand-new playground and new turf field that athletes of all ages can enjoy,” said Deputy Supervisor Councilman Ed Smyth. 

 At its February 11, 2020 meeting, the Huntington Town Board approved, by a 4-1 roll call vote, $750,000 in funding to build a spray park at Manor Field Park, part of Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci’s plans for the revitalization of Huntington Station. 

 At their September 15, 2020 meeting, the Town Board authorized the Supervisor to apply for up to $189,000 in New York State and Municipal Facilities Capital Program grant funding for the Manor Field Spray Park Playground project, one of the requirements for the grant funding was a 100% park-type use of the site of the project.  

 Councilman Ed Smyth sponsored a resolution appropriating $200,000 in funds to complete the spray park project at the September 14, 2021 Town Board meeting that will be returned to the fund balance if the grant funding is approved. 

 In Spring and Summer 2021, preparations for the new playground and spray park included the replacement of the synthetic turf field at Manor Field Park, under which the previous septic system leaching pools for both the comfort station and community building were located. The sanitary system was replaced to handle the additional septic and water usage the spray park would bring. Both the sanitary permit and water permit took several months to obtain approvals. 

 The old playground at Manor Field Park was slated for demolition in September 2021 but due to safety issues the old equipment presented, the Department of General Services demolished the playground in late August 2021. Construction on a new playground and the new Manor Field Spray Park will start in the coming weeks and will take approximately two months to complete. The spray park will officially open in Spring 2022. 

 

Attached: Renderings of the Manor Field Spray Park and Playground. 

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'Alluring', watercolor by Lorraine Rimmelin

The Art League of Long Island has emerged from the COVID pandemic with new in-person and virtual art classes, and its second live gallery exhibit of 2021: the long-awaited annual Instructor’s Exhibition. Art League Instructor artwork is on exhibit in the Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery October 30 through November 20. An open house and public artists’ reception take place Saturday, October 30 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  The open house and reception are free and open to the general public.

The Art League of Long Island boasts an impressive roster of art instructors who not only teach but also “do “.  Many of the Art League’s instructors are award-winning artists themselves whether on the local, national, or international stage.  The open house offers visitors a first-hand look at the inner-workings in the Art League’s specialized art studios through live demonstrations by the instructors.  Demonstrations include painting, drawing, pottery, jewelry making, and more.  Meet the instructors and learn about their classes and approach to teaching. Registration for late fall classes is open now, with winter/spring sessions to be posted online throughout late fall.

Art Demo Schedule:
– Patrick Aievoli: Game Design & Development for Teens – 11am-2pm
– Liz Fusco: Acrylic Painting for Young Artists (9-12yrs) ; Watercolor for Beginners (Adults and ages 16 & up); Oil Painting for Beginners (Adults and ages 16 & up) – 11am-2pm
– Stephanie Navon Jacobson: Printmaking Sampler – 12pm-2pm
– Marla Mencher: Jewelry Making (meet the instructor and students in after-class session) – 1pm-2pm
– Katie Rocks: Ceramics Studio Wheel Demonstration – 12pm-2pm
Please be advised: Masks are required when in the building at all times. 20 people will be allowed into the building at any one time.

The Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery is open free of charge Tuesdays & Thursdays 10am-5pm, and Fridays & Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Art League is located at 107 East Deer Park Road in Dix Hills. For more information call (631) 462-5400 or visit www.artleagueli.org.

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Photo from Vanderbilt Museum
Sponsored by Northwell Health

In honor of National First Responders Day, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport will thank First Responders and their families by offering them free general admission on Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31, from noon to 5 p.m. First responders will be asked for ID cards or proof of affiliation.

The Vanderbilt also will offer them discounted tickets for the Museum’s Fall Festival: $13 for kids and $14 for adults.

“We salute the brave men and women who make sacrifices and face danger every day to protect our communities,” said Elizabeth Wayland-Morgan, executive director of the Vanderbilt. (This includes police and firefighters, emergency medical personnel.)

“We’re offering free admission because these people are our neighbors and they provide essential services,” Wayland-Morgan said. “It’s hard on their spouses, families, and children. A fun day at the Vanderbilt is one way to thank them.”

For more information, call 631-854-5579 or visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.

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