The Reboli Center for Art and History, 64 Main St., Stony Brook continues its Third Friday series on Feb. 17 with a presentation titled The Enchanted Islands — Galapagos with guest speakers Carl Safina and Patricia Paladines from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The volcanic islands 600 miles west of the Pacific coast of South America have lured humans for hundreds of years. In 1535 a Spanish galleon carrying the Bishop of Panama found itself drifting helplessly in a no-wind situation near the islands. The crew, including the Bishop—finding themselves running out of water—staggered ashore. For two days they searched the land of black rocks finding nothing to alleviate their thirst. In desperation they began eating the island’s cacti, squeezing out the water these succulent plants retain. Unimpressed with the volcanic oasis that saved his life, the Bishop wrote in his journal that what earth the islands have, “is like a slag, worthless.”
Herman Melville also passed through the Galapagos aboard the whaler Acushnet, drawing inspiration for his most famous novel, Moby-Dick. But the most paradigm shifting visit was made 300 years after the cactus eating Bishop, with the arrival of Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle. His observations in the Galapagos Islands changed the way we understand the origins of life. But at first arrival, Darwin did not immediately see the beauty in the animals that greeted him. Upon seeing the islands’ endemic marine iguana, he noted, “The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large…most disgusting, clumsy Lizards…They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl.”
As the world celebrates Charles Darwin’s 224th birthday this month, Safina and Paladines will share their personal observations of the enchanting islands, the unique life forms that inhabit the rugged landscape, and the conservation efforts that now protect this crucible of evolutionary understanding.
This family-friendly event is free to the public and no reservations are required to attend. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call 631-751-7707 or visit www.rebolicenter.org.
Bob Wattecamps, Dean Hacohen and Diane Wattcamps by the Connecticut bench discovered at West Meadow Beach. Photo from Diane Wattecamps
An East Setauket couple’s walk along the beach led to a memorial bench returned to its rightful place — in Connecticut.
A bench from Connecticut was found on West Meadow Beach. Photo from Diane Wattecamps
After 50 years living in the Three Village area and countless walks along West Meadow Beach, Diane and Bob Wattecamps know the landscape like the backs of their hands.
While walking on the beach one day at the end of January, the couple embarked on an unexpected adventure. Diane Wattecamps pointed out a bench to her husband that caught her eye the day before on a windy day. It was a large bench made from teakwood lodged at the beach’s pavilion. The couple stopped to examine the piece covered with sand and seaweed. First, they found a bronze memorial plaque hanging from a screw on the bench.
“Bob just put his hand on the plaque, and it just came off in his hand,” said the wife. “He said, ‘Wow, this thing was just literally hanging on.’”
After closer inspection, the Wattecamps found another plaque in the sand and realized they belonged to a couple named Nahum and Judy Hacohen. They knew that not only did this bench not belong on their favorite beach, but it was also something special.
Diane Wattecamps said after reading the plaques, she could picture the couple sitting by the water somewhere, enjoying the view. One plaque dedicated to Nahum Hacohen read, “What a view.” Judy Hacohen’s plaque is inscribed with “I’ve said that since 1936.”
After she and her husband found the plaques, the Three Village resident said she took out her cellphone to search for the names, and she found the wife’s obituary immediately. It turned out she was an 81-year resident of Bell Island in Norwalk, Connecticut. The couple then decided to load the heavy bench into their truck.
“I have to find where it belongs,” Diane Wattecamps said to her husband.
A former TBR News Media employee for 30 years, the wife said she got home and started to read the obituary carefully. She found the children’s names and searched for them on the internet. One had a landline listed, Lee Hacohen.
“I guess it’s the curiosity in my personality that I couldn’t leave it,” she said.
She called and left a message for the Hacohens’ son. He returned the call within five minutes and was surprised to hear from her.
It turned out the bench had been missing since November from Bell Island located across the Long Island Sound. It was believed the bench traveled more than 17 nautical miles after a nor’easter.
Lee Hacohen asked if Diane Wattecamps could stay on the phone while he contacted his brother Dean who still lived on Bell Island.
After talking to them, Dean Hacohen said he would come the next day, even though the couple were happy to drive it to Connecticut, but Dean wanted to get the bench back as soon as possible and said his neighbor could come to help.
In the meantime, family members sent Bob and Diane Wattecamps photos of the Bell Island couple. They also shared pictures of the grandchildren sitting on the bench, including Dean Hacohen’s daughter and son-in-law on their wedding day.
Nahum’s and Judy’s plaques. Photo from Dean Hacohen
Dean Hacohen said a neighbor had initially noticed that the bench, one of three at a neighborhood park at a spot called Rocky Point, was missing at the end of last year. At first, they thought maybe someone had taken it. While it’s heavy, two people can pick it up. Then a neighbor pointed out that there were nor’easters back in November. Since the benches are unsecured and people move them around the neighborhood park, Hacohen said it was assumed the bench was probably left by the water and washed away in a storm. The hope was that it would turn up along a neighboring Connecticut beach, and he posted on the Nextdoor app to see if anyone found it, but no one had.
When Diane Wattecamps called, he said he never “imagined in my wildest dreams” that it would be found on Long Island.
Before they received the call, the Hacohens were researching online how much a bench would cost to replace the original one.
“I kept putting it off and hoping that maybe some miracle would happen, but I really didn’t think it would,” Dean Hacohen said, adding he wasn’t sure how the bench made it in one piece, especially with boats on the water.
He and his neighbor took the ferry to Port Jefferson and drove straight to Diane and Bob’s home. When they got there, the bench was in the portico with a sign, “USS Hacohen.”
“It was a glorious moment,” he said. “It really was.”
He added some might say it’s just a bench. “On the other hand, it was kind of a memorial, a tombstone, something in the way people go to the cemetery and sit with their loved ones,” he said.
Often, Hacohen said, when family members come to visit from California, they will go to the park to sit on the beach shortly after arriving.
“They go out to the park, sit on the bench, look out at the water, ground themselves,” he said. “I don’t know, somehow sitting there is very grounding.”
The bench was initially dedicated to his father in 2009. “What a view,” was one of his favorite expressions when he came down to the park and took in the sight of nearly 360 degrees of water and islands. Dean Hacohen said his mother enjoyed sitting on the bench after her husband’s passing. He said both inscriptions capture the father’s and mother’s personalities.
Hacohen said when he inspected the bench upon seeing it, he was surprised that it was only a little “banged up.”
Dean Hacohen said his parents loved cruises, and his father was in the passenger cruise ship business in the 1960s, so it wasn’t a surprise the bench took them on one more trip on the water together.
“The two of them together must have been on that bench heading for Long Island,” Hacohen said.
Since the reunion, the story has caught the attention of News12 and NBC Channel 4 — with videos online — and The Norwalk Hour newspaper. Diane Wattecamps was surprised by all the attention even though she found connecting with the Hacohens heartwarming. She and her husband, Wattecamps said, plan to keep in touch with the family.
Hacohen called Diane Wattecamps “a real detective.”
“You’ve got to be born with that gene to want to use it,” he said. “Most people would have just walked by the bench and said, ‘Oh, It’s an old bench that washed up.’”
Port Jefferson's stop on the Long Island Rail Road. File photo by Erika Karp
The decades-old plan to electrify the Port Jefferson Branch line of the Long Island Rail Road has transformational implications for our community, region and state. Yet for far too long, this critical infrastructure need has gone unmet, passed over repeatedly for other projects.
The MTA’s long pattern of negligence has condemned our commuters to ride in rickety train cars powered by diesel, an antiquated, environmentally hazardous fuel source. For a better ride, our residents often travel inland to Ronkonkoma, the MTA siphoning ridership to the main line and adding cars to our already congested roadways.
A fully electrified rail would provide the necessary recharge for downtowns still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. It would free up mobility for our residents, connecting them to every restaurant, bar and storefront along the North Shore within walking distance of a train station.
Electrification would give students and faculty at Stony Brook University swift access to Manhattan, producing even stronger ties between the southern flagship of our state university system and the global capital. This project would unlock the full commercial, environmental and educational potential of our region.
Throughout history, generations of New Yorkers have participated in engineering feats of great scope and vision. In the early 1800s, our citizens constructed the Erie Canal, bridging the world’s oceans to the American frontier. A century later, we built the state parkway system, laying thousands of miles of road, linking Montauk Point and Niagara Falls along a continuous stretch of pavement.
Generations have taken part in our state’s rich public works tradition, which has united New Yorkers around herculean aims, facilitated greater movement and improved the lives of ordinary people.
Yet, at every stage, the North Shore has been systematically shut out from any public investment of considerable scale. MTA has continually repurposed our tax dollars with no giveback to North Shore communities.
With our money, MTA recently opened its Grand Central Madison terminal ($11 billion), opened the 9.8 mile Third Track between Hicksville and Floral Park ($2.5 billion) and laid the groundwork for a proposed Interborough Express between Brooklyn and Queens ($5.5 billion estimated).
For us, Port Jefferson Branch electrification is our shared vision of change. This is our noble cause, our generational investment, our Erie Canal. The funds for the projected $3.6 billion Port Jeff electrification project are there if we can start getting them to come our way. And to do that, we must begin applying maximum pressure upon our elected officials.
From village and town boards to the county and state legislatures to the United States Congress, every public representative between Huntington and Port Jeff must be in alignment, letting out one common cry, “Electrify our line.”
We must treat electrification as the paramount infrastructure concern of our region, demanding our elected representatives and public railroad match our level of conviction. We should cast no vote nor contribute a single campaign dollar for any candidate without their unyielding support of this project.
This October, MTA will publish its 20-year Capital Needs Assessment. Port Jefferson Branch electrification must be included within that document for it to have any shot to prevail over the next two decades.
Write to your congressman and state reps in Albany. Write to the MTA and LIRR. Tell them to electrify this line, lest there be consequences at the ballot box. With all our might, let us get this project underway once and for all.
Floating humpback whale offshore of Delaware. Photo courtesy the Marine Education, Research & Rehabilitation Institute
This year has been tough for the population of humpback whales, as eight of them from Maine to Florida have had so-called unusual mortality events as at Feb. 7.
Indeed, a 41-foot humpback whale was discovered washed up Jan. 30 at Lido Beach on the South Shore. The whale likely died after a vessel strike, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Officials said.
Threats to whales in the area include getting hit by boats, becoming entangled in fishing lines and ocean noise.
The last of these potential dangers to humpbacks has received considerable attention from some members of the popular press, who have suggested that the process of installing wind farms along the coastline has or may create the kind of noises that can cause trauma to whale ears and that might throw a whale off course in its search for food.
To provide a broader context, unusual mortality events have been occurring for humpback whales since 2016, as 180 have been stranded along East Coast states since that time, according to NOAA data.
Scientists were able to study about half of the total humpback whale strandings from 2016 and attributed about 40% to ship strike or entanglements. The rest either died from starvation, parasites, inconclusive causes, or were in places where it would have been difficult to study and analyze them.
The combination of whales distracted by feeding and boat traffic has led to some of the deaths.
“Our waterways are one of the busiest on Earth,” said Nomi Dayan, executive director of The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor. “During busy eating months, when they are gorging, it’s harder to pay attention” to what’s around them.
Many of these humpback whale deaths occurred during periods when wind farm activity was low along the Eastern Seaboard.
“What we’re seeing right now [in terms of whale strandings] is something that has been going on for years,” said Lesley Thorne, associate professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.
In a press conference last month, officials suggested that the wind farms, which are designed to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels, cut down on carbon emissions and slow global warming, are not likely to make what is already a challenging period for humpbacks even worse.
“At this point, based on the information that we do have, we do not believe the evidence supports that those planned construction activities would exacerbate or compound these ongoing unusual mortality events,” Ben Laws, biologist with NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, said during a Jan. 18 conference call with reporters.
‘What we’re seeing right now [in terms of whale strandings] is something that has been going on for years.’
— Lesley Thorne
As part of the investigation process, NOAA has brought together an independent team of scientists to coordinate with the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events to review data, sample stranded whales and determine the next steps for this investigation.
The scientists include marine mammal stranding network members, academics and veterinarians with local state and federal biologists.
At this point, most of the surveys off the coasts of New York and New Jersey are “characterizing the seafloor and the sub-bottom for engineering purposes for the foundation of offshore wind facilities as well as looking at cable burial risks along that route,” Brian Hooker, marine biologist in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said on the press call.
Slower boat speeds
Reducing boat speeds in areas where whales are likely hunting for food or migrating can reduce the likelihood of vessel strikes and, in the event of contact, can improve the outcome for whales.
“What’s been demonstrated in the past is that, with faster vessels, collisions are more likely to occur and it’s more likely for that collision to be fatal,” Thorne said. The specific speeds or thresholds that are more likely to cause fatal collisions vary depending on the whale species.
The whales around Long Island include sei whales, North Atlantic right whales, finback whales, minke whales and, rarely, blue whales, according to Dayan.
Some management strategies for a host of whales such as the North Atlantic right whale include seasonal management areas, in which boats around a particular area during a specific season are required to travel more slowly.
Carl Mills, assistant vice president for government relations at SBU, above in tie, met with the members of the Three Village Civic Association. Photo by George Hoffman
Three Village Civic Association meeting attendees received news Feb. 6 on recent developments at Stony Brook University.
Carl Mills, assistant vice president for government relations at SBU, answers questions from members of the Three Village Civic Association. Photo by George Hoffman
Carl Mills, assistant vice president for government relations at SBU, was on hand for the meeting to provide university updates, answer questions and receive feedback from members.
Mills said it was important for the university to have a dialogue with the civic association, calling them “the voice of the community.”
He added, “From the president on down, it’s very important for us to be good neighbors and to really be a strong beacon for the community.”
Local improvements and developments
Mills informed the group that the federal government approved a grant for a pedestrian bridge that will be constructed over Nicholls Road. It would enable pedestrians to safely walk from the university’s main entrance to the hospital side and back again. Separate funds will also be used for safety and structural improvementsfor an existing underpass that Mills said many pedestrians don’t use because it’s further south on campus and, instead, cross the main intersection. The pedestrian bridge, with provision for cyclists, is currently in the process stage.
In April, the new Stony Brook Medicine Lake Grove facility at the Smith Haven Mall will open. He said the facility will be similar to the 500 Commack Road location in Commack. After the current roadwork by the state along Route 347, traffic concerns are not anticipated.
He said legislation passed both houses in the state Legislature last year to make Flax Pond in Old Field an estuary, but Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) asked for revisions and Mills said the bill will have to pass both houses again. The Flax Pond Marine Laboratory is operated for research purposes by SBU’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. The laboratory building and the Flax Pond Tidal Wetland Area are owned by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Bill A10187, sponsored by former State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and state Sen. Mario Mattera (R-St. James), establishes the tidal wetland area as a sanctuary. Initially, the intent was to amend the navigation laws to prohibit the use of motorboats within Flax Pond. Mills said with the revisions, motorboats up to 10 horsepower and certain hunting will be allowed. However, jet skiing will be prohibited as well as commercial fishing, hunting and trapping.
In conjunction with Englebright, university officials have been working to clean up and improve a parcel of land at the end of Dogwood Drive that SBU owns, near the house of 19th-century painter William Sidney Mount. Within that parcel is 635 square feet of land that belongs to a woman, who until recently, didn’t realize she owned it. The land is a gravesite where it is believed slaves and Native Americans are buried. Two of the gravestones are at the Long Island Museum and grave markers stand in their place
Englebright, who was in attendance for the civic meeting, said one gravestone is significant as a fiddle is carved into it.
“It’s also unique to have an apparent slave given this much dignity,” he said.
Many of Mount’s paintings featured musicians, including those who were enslaved.
SBU is working to acquire the property with the gravestones and also contact homeowners who have encroached on the parcel. The hope, Mills said, is to produce a documentary or podcasts about the people buried at the site.
“We’re not going to exhume the bodies but make sure that they’re protected and dignified,” he said.
State matters
SBU is one of the State University of New York’s flagship schools, along with the University at Buffalo.
“We have felt we’ve been for a long time, but that designation has profound impacts on where we can go and really what we can bring back to the local community,” Mills said.
U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Colleges publication rated SBU as No. 77 nationally and No. 31 among public universities.
While SBU tuition has been flat since 2019, and it’s one of the lowest in the country, Mills said Hochul has proposed a 3% tuition increase in SUNY schools and then up to 6% for University at Albany, Binghamton University, Buffalo and SBU.
“But we look at that in the context of the fact that we have not gotten an increase in operating aid since 2012,” he said. “Since 2012, the state has funded us at the same amount to keep the lights on, to pay salaries, when all of those costs, as we all know, will increase each year.”
Last year, SBU received state capital funding due to being designated as a flagship. A new engineering building will be constructed from $100 million of funding and another $25 million will be used for a neuroAI facility that will be part of the engineering building.
“One of the big determinants of whether you’re successful as a higher education institution is how much federal research dollars you can bring in,” he said. “Stony Brook by far has the most research dollars of any SUNY campus, even more so than Buffalo, but our facilities, many of them are very, very outdated.”
He gave the example of the 1960s chemistry building where specific lab/spaces in particular need to be brought up to best practices and codes.
He said Hochul’s affordable housing proposal, which includes increasing multi-home developments by transit hubs, would affect the university the same as the community.
In her State of the State message in January, Hochul proposed a housing strategy calling for 800,000 new homes to be built in the state over the course of a decade to address the lack of affordable housing. Among the plan’s requirements would be municipalities with Metropolitan Transportation Authority railroad stations to rezone to make way for higher-density residential development. All downstate cities, towns and villages served by the MTA would have a new home creation target over three years of 3%, compared to upstate counties that would need to build 1% more new homes over the same period.
“With Stony Brook train station there’s not a lot of room, but how that plays out, will be very important to the issues that you guys care about but also for us,” he said.
Concerns by local town supervisors of planning controls possibly being taken out of their hands were noted by the audience.
Mills added, “Off-campus housing is a challenge not just for the university faculty or for students, I’m sure for you in the community to find affordable housing as well.”
From L to R: Front Row – Mari Irizarry, Director, Dotty Miller, Recording Secretary, Holly Brainard, Judi Wallace,
Treasurer, Brian Bennett, David Prestia, Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn. Back Row – Vinny Menten, Patty Cain,
Shamma Murphy, Corresponding Secretary, Ron LaVita, Jeff Schnee, President, David Tracy, Greg Philipps, Vice
President. Not pictured: Ed Miller, Vice President, Christina Tortora, Orlando Maione and Michael O’Dwyer.
Photo by: Rob Pellegrino
The Three Village Historical Society (TVHS) membership recently elected five new members: Judi Wallace, Shamma Murphy, Brian Bennett, Christina Tortora and David Tracy. The group joined current board of trustee members Holly Brainard, David Prestia, Vinny Menten, Patty Cain, Ron LaVita, Orlando Maione and Michael O’Dwyer for a swearing in by Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn at the annual meeting of the membership and lecture on Jan. 23 at The Setauket Neighborhood House.
“These new trustees bring a wealth of experience, leadership, and perspective that will greatly enhance the ability of our board to meet the significant challenges and opportunities facing the Three Village Historical Society,” says Mari Irizarry, Director. “We look forward to working with each of them to continue the board’s focused stewardship of TVHS’ financial and community affairs to strengthen the Society’s reputation for excellence in education and community based programming.”
New Trustees
Judi Wallace, CPA, Treasurer, has owned a local accounting firm in the Three Village area for the past 19 years. Her practice includes accounting and bookkeeping services for small businesses, tax preparation and planning for individuals, corporations and non-profit organizations and she is admitted to practice before the Internal Revenue Service.
Judi has been a resident of the Three Village area since 2003 and is involved in a variety of local organizations including Treasurer of Stony Brook Rotary, Treasurer of Small Business Networking Alliance, Trustee of Three Village Community Trust, Treasurer of Three Village Historical Society, and Treasurer of SparkleFaith Inc. She is also very involved in St James RC Church in Setauket serving on the Finance Committee, Parish Council, and various other ministries.
Shamma Murphy, Corresponding Secretary has been a resident of Stony Brook for the past 10 years. She has two sons in the Three Village Central School District where she has volunteered regularly over the past seven years. Currently Shamma is the President of the Gelinas PTSA and the Treasurer of the Ward Melville High School PTSA, both in the second year of each two-year term.
For the past four years she has been recruiting volunteers to help in the Gelinas School store, keeping the store stocked and manned, being the largest fundraiser for this PTSA. Prior, she ran the Scholastic Book Fairs at Setauket Elementary School for four years, implementing a process to fill each teacher’s classrooms with at least $250 worth of new books per fair, as well as a “buy one get one free” funded 100% by the Setauket PTA to keep students reading through the summer. For the past five years Shamma has been the President’s Volunteer Service Award’s Chairperson for Gelinas Jr. High School. She enjoys volunteering at the Three Village Historical Society very much, introduced to her by her son, Owen Murphy, a regular volunteer.
Shamma works with farmers, community gardeners and homeowners as the education and marketing director for SOS for your Soil, a local compost company, for the past ten years, prior to that, she was a civil engineer on Long Island and in Charlotte, NC for 12 years.
Brian Bennett, Trustee is a life long resident of Long Island. He received his BA in Economics from SUNY Albany and 2 MA’s from SUNY Stony Brook, in Liberal Studies and History. Having grown up in Ronkonkoma, he had a History of Lake Ronkonkoma published in the old Long Island Forum.
Brian taught, mostly in the Sayville school district for over 30 years. He and his wife Donna have lived in Setauket for 30 years, and their 2 sons attended Three Village schools. Since retirement, he has continued to teach as an adjunct professor at both Suffolk Community College and St. Joseph’s University. He is a coordinator of Our Daily Bread, a soup kitchen at St. James RC church and enjoys being outdoors, and doing crossword puzzles with his wife.
Christina Tortora, Trustee is a Professor of Linguistics at The City University of New York, where she is currently Deputy Executive Officer in the Linguistics Program at The Graduate Center in Manhattan. She has over 25 years of experience in higher education and management of federally funded projects from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Chrstina is the author and editor of several academic books, journal articles, and book chapters, and has a life-long passion for teaching advanced scientific findings to students in diverse professions and academic disciplines. She grew up in Setauket and currently lives in Stony Brook, is an alumna of the Three Village School District (Nassakeag; Murphy; Ward Melville), and an alumna of Stony Brook University, where she maintains strong professional and personal ties. She has an interest in vernacular culture and oral histories and wishes to bring her academic expertise in project management and oral history to the Three Village Historical Society.
David Tracy, Trustee has been a resident of the Three Village area since 2012. He has served and continues to serve as a Law Enforcement Officer with the Department of Homeland Security since 2010. Prior to beginning his Law Enforcement career, David served in the United States Marine Corps for 4 years, completing two tours to Iraq. After serving in the military, David attended John Jay of Criminal Justice graduating with honors with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice. David has been married to his wife Becky since 2007 and has a son, Sean, who was born in 2008.
In his spare time, David is the Founder and Chairman of a local charity called the Three Village Dads Foundation. His charity is responsible for donating over $200,000 to local causes such as the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, High School Scholarships, Veteran causes, Historical restoration projects and many other deserving recipients. David has also served as a Trustee on the Board of the Three Village Community Trust since 2020.
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ABOUT TVHS — The Three Village Historical Society (TVHS), a non-profit 501(c)(3) founded in 1964 by community members, exists to educate the public about our rich cultural heritage as well as foster and preserve local history. TVHS offers museum exhibits, events, programs, archives, and other outreach initiatives to inform and enrich the public’s interest in and understanding of the vibrant past of the Three Village area along the north shore in Suffolk County, Long Island.
The decades-long proposal to electrify the Port Jefferson Branch line of the Long Island Rail Road is nearing yet another derailment.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, public owner of LIRR, is expected to unveil its 2025-2044 20-Year Needs Assessment in October. Larry Penner, a transportation analyst and former director for Federal Transit Administration Region 2, considered that document pivotal for the project’s future advancement.
“If the project is not included in that 20-year document, then none of us are going to be alive to see electrification,” he said, adding pessimistically that electrification “is not on the radar screen” of senior MTA or state-level officials.
Requests for comment submitted to the press offices of the MTA, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and U.S. Congressman Nick LaLota (R-NY1) went unanswered.
A cry unheard
‘It’s appalling that they’re using diesel in this day and age.’
— Bruce Miller
Generations of North Shore residents and community leaders have called upon the MTA to electrify the Port Jeff line to no avail.
Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) has been among Long Island’s loudest and most prominent proponents of electrification in recent years. In an interview with TBR News Media last summer, he said public investment has shifted away from the Island.
“Our voice has not been raised,” he said. “There hasn’t been an investment in providing modern technology” to this region.
Village of Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant voiced similar frustrations. According to her, a fully electrified rail would boost local and regional economies, expediting travel to Manhattan and between North Shore communities, namely transit to and from nearby powerhouse Stony Brook University.
The project “would incentivize people being able to take the train not only into Stony Brook but into the city in a really timely manner,” she said.
From an environmental perspective, former Port Jeff Village trustee Bruce Miller decried the existing railway infrastructure as “ludicrous.”
“It’s appalling that they’re using diesel in this day and age,” he said, adding, “Everyone is making every effort for green energy in all fields except for the MTA and the Long Island Rail Road.”
Illustration by Kyle Horne: kylehorneart.com @kylehorneart
State legislators join the cause
Local leaders are not alone in their disappointment over the long delay. State Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) condemned what he considered an imbalance between the state taxes Long Island spends and the infrastructure dollars it gets from Albany.
“Long Islanders already contribute greatly to the MTA and deserve better access to more reliable and dependable rail service,” he said in an email, referring to Port Jefferson Branch electrification as a “critical project.”
At the western end of the branch, state Assemblyman Keith Brown (R-Northport), whose district includes travelers from Huntington, Greenlawn and Northport stations, expressed dismay over the state’s billowing budget yet few returns for North Shore residents.
He noted the apparent contradiction between Albany’s green energy priorities and the MTA’s continued use of diesel locomotives, which are due for replacement in the coming years.
Referencing the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which targets an 85% reduction in statewide greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, Brown regarded the continued dependence upon diesel technology as inconsistent with state law.
“They can’t really replace the existing fleet with diesel trains,” he said. “At the same time they’re calling to stop the use of gas in homes, the MTA and LIRR can’t be purchasing diesel locomotives.”
The Empire State Passenger Association is a transit advocacy group that aims for improvements in public transportation services throughout New York state. ESPA president Gary Prophet said the passenger association has endorsed Port Jefferson Branch electrification over the years, referring to the project as necessary and justifiable given the volume of commuters along the line.
“That is a heavily used branch of the Long Island Rail Road that should be electrified,” he said. “It probably should have been electrified in the past, but it just hasn’t happened for a variety of reasons.”
A history of inaction
The original concept of Port Jeff line electrification dates back over half a century. However, planning began in earnest in the early 1970s when electrification of the North Shore line extended up to Huntington.
Derek Stadler, associate professor and web services librarian at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, has closely followed historical developments along the Port Jeff Branch.
He attributes the failures to electrify the line to a combination of resistance from property owners near the tracks, engineering challenges, financial setbacks and bad luck.
“In the ‘80s, they had money set aside to start working on it though they hadn’t secured the funds to complete it,” he said. “Then in 1985, the president of the MTA postponed that indefinitely.” Stadler contends this was the closest the project ever was to moving forward.
In the ‘90s, the MTA launched a fleet of dual-mode locomotives which are still in use today. Despite the good intentions, Stadler maintains that this fleet has not adequately substituted for electric service. Given the high costs to repair and replace outdated train cars, Stadler regarded this effort as a poor long-term investment.
“They have spent more money on that new fleet and repairing them than if they would have done the electrification way back in the ‘80s,” he said.
Prioritization problem
‘If I’m the MTA, I’m electrifying the East End before I electrify the North Shore.’
— Richard Murdocco
The current cost estimate of Port Jeff Branch electrification is $3.6 billion, though that figure will almost certainly climb. To secure these dollars, however, the North Shore is competing against other project proposals across Long Island and New York state.
Throughout LIRR’s history as a public railroad company, North Shore riders have lost out consistently to their inland counterparts traveling along the Ronkonkoma line. Richard Murdocco, adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at SBU, chronicled this pattern, saying the pursuit of Port Jeff Branch electrification continues running up against the hard realities of the MTA’s prioritization scheme.
“The question is: Is electrification really the priority on the North Shore, or should you electrify east of Ronkonkoma?” Murdocco said. Given the spur of recent growth in Yaphank and new developments in the Town of Riverhead, he added, “If I’m the MTA, I’m electrifying the East End before I electrify the North Shore.”
Further hampering investment into the Port Jeff Branch is the topography along its route. Given the large hills and frequent bends, the flatter main line may win the day for its comparably simple engineering logistics.
Murdocco said the MTA could either electrify the Port Jeff Branch, which “meanders along the hilly terrain, or you get a straight shot through the Pine Barrens, where there’s already talk of them doing it, where they’re welcoming it and where there are no neighbors to disrupt.”
‘Suffolk County does not have the political clout that it used to.’
— Larry Penner
Political and financial distress
Penner claims the political and financial currents are also working against North Shore residents. Suffolk County’s state representatives are increasingly in the legislative minority in Albany, leaving mere “crumbs on the table” for infrastructure improvements.
“Suffolk County does not have the political clout that it used to,” he said.
Even so, the MTA is encountering a systemwide economic crisis from the COVID-19 pandemic, with daily ridership hovering around 65% from pre-pandemic levels. Murdocco insists that many of the labor trends unleashed by COVID-19 will likely linger indefinitely.
“There’s no denying remote work is here to stay,” the SBU adjunct professor said, adding, “We don’t know how long the ramifications of the pandemic will last.”
Meanwhile, the MTA is facing even greater fiscal strife over looming labor negotiations. With recent inflation, Penner said the agency could lose potentially hundreds of millions from renegotiated union contracts.
“All of this plays into the bigger picture of MTA’s overall health,” Penner said, which he considered dismal based on state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s (D) most recent analysis. “They’re barely staying afloat maintaining existing service, systems and repairs,” the former FTA official added.
Penner, Stadler and Murdocco expressed collective pessimism about Port Jefferson Branch electrification getting underway within the next decade. “As of right now, I do not see this project happening within 10 years because I do not see a fiscal way for anyone to pay for it, given the MTA’s current financial status,” Murdocco said.
Looking for answers
Given the hefty $3.6 billion price tag, Miller proposed exploring alternatives to electric service. He cited examples in Germany, where zero-emission hydrogen-powered train cars recently went online.
“Hydrogen technology is new but they’ve developed it, and it’s working in Germany,” the former village trustee said. “I don’t think they’re exploring enough options here.”
But implementing high-tech propulsion technologies may be out of reach for the MTA, which uses a late 19th-century fuel source to power the Port Jeff line. When asked about these potential innovations, Brown expressed skepticism.
“As far as hydrogen is concerned, that’s all it is right now — experimental,” the state assemblyman said. Rather, he favored pursuing electrification in a piecemeal, station-by-station fashion, dispersing infrastructure funds for the project over several annual budgets.
Penner implored community members to adopt a policy of maximum pressure upon their elected representatives.
“I wouldn’t give a dime to any elected official unless, with your campaign contribution, there’s a little note in your check [that says] you have to promise me that electrification of Port Jefferson will be your number one transportation priority,” he said.
Stadler emphasized executive support, arguing that several system expansions during the administration of former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller (R) were made possible by the chief executive’s commitment to seeing them through.
“A lot of money has to be budgeted for it,” he said. “State leaders have to be involved in it, and pressure from the governor” can be a reliable instrument.
To make the electrification dream a reality, Garant said all levels of government should pool their energies around this cause. “It’s certainly going to be a long-term plan for the region,” she said. “You need partners on every level, from the federal and state levels to the town and county.”
Prophet said megaprojects, such as the $11 billion East Side Access extension into Grand Central Madison, have taken up much of the political and economic capital in New York state.
“I think there’s a lot of emphasis on large projects that make a big splash,” the passenger association president said. “Politicians need to spend a little more time on smaller projects that may not make a big splash but may help commuters and people looking to travel between cities.”
Setting the stakes, Penner returned to the 20-year capital needs assessment. He equated the North Shore’s present predicament to a baseball game.
“You’re in the ninth inning with two outs,” he said. “The last at-bat is the 2025-2044 20-year capital needs assessment.” He concluded by saying, “If this project is not included in that document, then the ball game is over.”
Option four in the survey, which would create primary schools for kindergarten through second grade and intermediate schools for third through fifth, has been widely panned. Setauket Elementary School pictured above. Photo by Mallie Kim
By Mallie Kim
Declining enrollment alongside a history of budget vote woes has Three Village Central School District eyeing structural changes, and the Board of Education is asking parents, students, staff and the community to weigh in by survey.
The request for community involvement, which comes after a series of public strategic planning meetings, is a step toward forming the 2023-24 district budget after last year’s budget proposal squeaked by with 66 votes and the 2021 budget failed to pass the vote at all, forcing a tighter contingency budget and no tax levy increase. The vote this spring will be the first under the leadership of new Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon.
Results of the survey will weigh heavily in upcoming budget and planning discussions, according to Scanlon. “The board and administration will only consider those options which receive the majority of support from each of the groups surveyed,” he wrote by email.
The survey, which opened Feb. 2 and will close Feb. 17, includes explanatory video messages from Scanlon and asks residents to rank the favorability of four restructuring options individually and then against each other. The options include maintaining the status quo, moving up ninth grade to high school and sixth grade to middle school, moving up only the ninth grade and finally the Princeton Plan, which calls for dividing elementary students into lower and upper grade schools.
According to district data, there’s been a 23% decrease in the student population since the 2012-13 school year, from just over 7,000 students enrolled a decade ago to about 5,500 this year in grades K-12. Maintaining the current structure of district schools may only be sustainable if enrollment increases, according to Scanlon. Proposed restructuring is an effort to prepare in case enrollment continues to decline along its current trajectory. In response to rumors among concerned parents, Scanlon has emphasized at strategic planning meetings and in the survey videos that no decisions have been made about closing or repurposing any of the five district elementary schools. Any such move “would not be considered by the administration until the budget process next year for the 2024-25 school year,” Scanlon wrote.
The options on the table this year, which have been explained and discussed publicly at the strategic planning meetings, have varying popularity among local families.
Creating sixth through eighth grade middle schools and a four-year high school would bring Three Village more in line with schools across New York state and the country, give sixth graders more course and extracurricular offerings and, according to figures provided by the board, save about $450,000 per year on transportation costs alone, for ninth graders traveling to Ward Melville High School for athletics and advanced placement courses.
The proposal to move ninth grade to the high school has received a lot of public support, due to the prevalence of four-year high schools in the United States and the fact that it would save the district money. Kim Moody, who has four children spread across all levels of district schools, agrees. “I really think it would benefit the ninth graders to be at the high school,” she said, pointing to the inefficient time management for those who bus to Ward Melville for extracurriculars and for the high schoolers who have to wait for those buses to arrive. “It is an ambiguous year that ninth graders can be part of JV sports teams, but they’re still housed separately from their teammates,” she added.
Detractors at strategic planning committees have raised hallway crowding and increased traffic around Ward Melville as primary reasons for pause.Moody is less firm in her opinion about moving sixth grade up to middle school. “I don’t think they can make a wrong decision around sixth grade, personally,” she said. Moody, who works with adolescents through the Christian organization Young Life, has noticed both in personal and professional experience that students tend to make a developmental leap around the middle of sixth grade. “As a parent, the first part of sixth grade I was glad they were in elementary school, but by the second half, I would think: ‘This kid could be in middle.’”
Some parents, including Moody, say if the change goes through, the district should find ways to scaffold this variance in readiness among sixth graders during their first middle school semester and should also begin preparing fifth graders to switch classes — something district elementary schools are already piloting this year.
Option four in the survey, which would create primary schools for kindergarten through second grade and intermediate schools for third through fifth, has been widely panned at strategic planning subcommittee meetings and on social media. In the Princeton Plan, common in surrounding school districts on Long Island, classroom and special area teachers would specialize in a smaller range of grades while students in programs like the Intellectually Gifted classes would no longer have to bus to alternate schools. This option would also mean adding a school transition for students, splitting elementary-aged siblings and a lengthening commute time for some children, away from their neighborhood schools.
Data from the survey will be broken up into the four respondent groups: the community at large; parents of students currently enrolled in Three Village schools; secondary students and district staff and will be shared in the relevant committees before moving on to a formal presentation to the school board.
For more survey information, visit the district’s website www.threevillagecsd.org and click on School Restructuring Survey on the home page.
You don’t have to pay me. I’m not selling anything, and I don’t have any desire for you to provide testimonials.
Many of you have probably pledged to lose weight. It’s healthy, you’ll look and feel better, and you might increase your endurance, allowing you to walk, jog or engage in your exercise of choice for longer. Some of you may have gone to the gym for a week or even a month and are ready for a break or, maybe, a different way.
Before I proceed, I’d recommend that those with weak stomachs or who are eating one of their favorite meals not read this until you’ve happily digested your food and are now prepared for something that might not be all that pleasing.
No, I’m not going to suggest something harmful or particularly unhealthy. I’d like to suggest a few sensory images to keep in mind that will prevent you from eating too much of the wrong foods.
So, let’s say there’s a jelly donut at your office. Now, I want you to picture or imagine any of the following:
— You’re exercising at the gym (you don’t have to go to the gym. Just imagine yourself there). Maybe you’re on an elliptical machine. There, standing in front of you is a man who has a ring of hair above his ears and a bald spot on top of his head. He’s on the phone, with air pods in his ears, and he brings his index finger slowly to the bald part of his head. He starts digging his fingernail into that spot. Over and over and over again. You try to look away, but then, he’s still there, digging. Even with all the noise of other people grunting, sweating and clearing the phlegm from the backs of their throats, you can hear the scratching as if it were broadcast directly into your ears. You want him to leave, but he’s planted in front of you.
Yes, I know I may have turned you off the gym and food at the same time. Then again, were you really going to the gym or were you just looking for an excuse to cuddle up under the covers? And, yes, this did happen to me.
— Okay, next, you’re walking into a house filled with dogs after a rainstorm. The dogs are friendly enough and, in fact, want you to pet them, which is fairly unpleasant because their fur is covered with water. Soon, the smell of matted, wet, soggy dog fur overwhelms you. You can barely breathe as you search for an open window and fresh air. That donut might taste like wet fur at this moment, right?
— You don’t have to work out to imagine this one, either. Picture yourself in a gym locker room. You’ve changed into your work clothes and are ready to return to your desk. But, wait, the scent of body odor is so strong that you have to breathe shallowly through your mouth. You search for the exit, which seems to have moved, leaving you stuck in a foul-smelling maze. A jelly donut is the last thing on your mind.
— The heating system in your office suddenly goes on full blast, turning your office into a sauna. It’s so hot that sweat drips down your forehead and lands in a growing puddle on the floor. Your body sticks to the material on your seat. Even the saliva in your mouth feels too hot to swallow. Water is much more appealing and refreshing than food at this point.
Okay, so, if all you got out of that is that you now want a jelly donut, my apologies. Chances are, you wanted one anyway and maybe it’s time to find a gym that smells nice and where men aren’t scratching their scalps. If, however, those unappealing images work for you, consider this a free food stop sign.
Has anyone noticed that there seems to be a conspicuous lack of shame in our society? One could also point out, in the lacking department, the disappearance of honor. And to a great extent, of respect. Yes, and even civility, courtesy, apology and politeness.
Now I am not pointing a finger at any particular demographic, as in, “In my generation, we always stood up if we were seated, when introduced to an elderly lady,” or “Children shouldn’t talk to their teachers that way.” Members of older generations have traditionally found fault with those coming up after them, for being less ambitious, or mannerly or some such. But I would hope I am not just another cranky, older person. No, I’m referring to something else, something more sinister in our present culture.
Now I am not accusing everyone here. Just saying that these qualities seem to be a lot less evident in today’s world. I guess if you never need to tell the truth, you never have to admit that you lost a tennis match … or an election.
That loss of good sportsmanship is troubling. I like to see, for example, when the other two participants in a nightly round of “Jeopardy!” turn and applaud the winner at the end of the contest. It makes me feel that we are all together as part of a community when the ball teams each form a line and shake hands with the opposing team members, however competitive the preceding game might have been.
George Santos (R-NY3), the newly elected Congressman from Queens, is a case in point. He is merely a product of our times, if an extreme one. While he now admits to falsifying the resume he campaigned on, he seems to consider his behavior acceptable, exaggerating not lying. During Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, he unabashedly sashayed around the room, sitting in one of the most visible seats, shaking hands with many senators and the president, even taking selfies. He clearly feels no shame about his actions and no sense of consequence. What sort of culture does he come from? The answer is: one in which the lack of all the above attributes rule.
Santos is not the first such example, of course. I am reminded of the historic, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” question asked of Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) by soft spoken American lawyer, Joseph Nye Welch, for the Army during the infamous Army-McCarthy hearings. Those hearings searched for Communist activities in the early 1950s on behalf of the Senate. McCarthy lied his way to power, but Welch’s immortal query, in effect, ended his career, as his Republican colleagues no longer accepted his erratic antics, censured and ostracized him.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), before Biden’s speech and noting Santos’s actions, told him he “shouldn’t have been there,” meaning front and center in the House, and had no shame. But so far, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA20) — odd repetition of names — has not publicly challenged or denounced him.
“He shouldn’t be in Congress,” Romney said, when he was questioned by the press after Biden’s speech about the testy exchange with Santos . “If he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”
Far from shame, Santos tweeted Romney, “Hey @MittRomney, just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” Romney, of course, lost his presidential bid in 2012.
Perhaps in the culture of today, not only does one refrain from acknowledging wrongdoing but rather, when challenged, comes back fighting. How far we have come in our ethics evolution. Sounds a bit like Putin, doesn’t it?
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