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Yearly Archives: 2015

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Centereach Fire Department file photo

Two police officers and a neighbor saved a woman from a raging house fire early Sunday morning that killed a family dog.

The Suffolk County Police Department said the officers, Frank Saracino and Keith Murphy, responded to a 911 call reporting the fire on Forest Road in Centereach at about 3:15 a.m. to find a house fully engulfed and a woman trapped on the second floor.

Police said Saracino, Murphy and a neighbor from across the street, 43-year-old Thomas Earl, located three ladders and together climbed to the second-floor window and carried the woman down the ladder to safety.

The rescued woman, 66-year-old Rosemarie Donnelly, and Earl were treated for back injuries at Stony Brook University Hospital.

Of the house’s four other occupants, who all escaped the flames on their own, James Donnelly, 72, Rosemarie’s husband, was treated at SBUH for lacerations to his hand and leg; and grandson Justin Donnelly, 26, was treated there for smoke inhalation. The two others, police said, reported having difficulty breathing but refused treatment.

Police said Centereach Fire Department personnel rescued two of the family’s pets, a cat and a dog, but another dog died in the fire.

Detectives from the SCPD’s Arson Section are investigating the fire’s cause, as is the Brookhaven Town fire marshal.

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File photo

A Port Jefferson Station woman was killed over the weekend when a car hit her on North Bicycle Path.

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, a 2002 Honda was heading north on the Port Jefferson Station road shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 2, when it hit the pedestrian.

Although police did not immediately name the victim, authorities identified her the next day as 73-year-old Rosa Maria Sinchi, a resident of Sweet Woods Court.

Sinchi was brought to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital where, after treatment, she was pronounced dead, police said. The Honda’s driver, 17-year-old Thomas Sammartino, also a Port Jefferson Station resident, was not hurt in the collision and stayed at the scene.

Police impounded the car for a safety check and detectives from the SCPD’s 6th Squad are investigating the incident. Anyone with information is asked the call the squad at 631-854-8652.

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Huntington Town hosted its 15th Annual Tulip Festival on Sunday, May 3, a springtime festival that is a free, family-oriented, floral event in Heckscher Park. It featured tulips, hands-on children’s activity booths and live entertainment. Hundreds of children and their families attended.

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Tulips are on display at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
Ryder Grodinsky makes a card for Mother's Day at the Huntington Area Public Libraries Outreach Youth Service Create a Tulip Card table at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
Lucien Saint Cyr, left, and Matthew Colavita race each other at the Cub Scout Pack 406 Raingutter Regatta at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin.
Tulips are on display at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
The Huntington Arts Council announces the winners of the Tulip Festival School Art Contest at the festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
Members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation lead the children’s parade at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
Spanish immersion workshops for children are on display at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
The crowd is out and about at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
Tulips and children abound at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin
Members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation lead the children’s parade at the Tulip Festival in Huntington on Sunday, May 3. Photo by Dan Woulfin

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File photo

A driver is dead after his car went into a house in Huntington on Friday night.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 49-year-old James Spillane was driving a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder west on Woodhull Road about 11:38 p.m. when he veered to the left and drove across a house’s lawn. He crashed into the northeast corner of the home, which is located near the corner with Hilaire Drive.

Spillane, a Syosset resident, was pronounced dead at the scene. He may have experienced a medical event before the Nissan left the road, police said.

No one in the home was injured, according to police, and the house had minor damage.

Police impounded the Pathfinder for a safety check and detectives from the SCPD’s 2nd Squad are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call the detectives at 631-854-8252.

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Recharge basin will reduce erosion at Pickwick Beach

Town workers get moving to construct a sump near the intersection of Amagansett and Shore drives. Photo from the highway department

The town highway department started work recently on a stormwater project that could improve water quality in the Long Island Sound and prevent erosion on a troubled bluff that has homes sitting on top of it.

Brookhaven Town officials hope a new recharge basin near the intersection of Amagansett and Shore drives in Sound Beach, once completed, will collect stormwater runoff from surrounding roads and thus reduce the amount discharging onto nearby Pickwick Beach and into the Sound. The decreased flow of runoff onto the beach would relieve pressure on the bluff there, which has dangerously eroded in recent years.

The recharge basin will be located at the town’s parking lot for the beach. In late 2013, the town bought property — which had previously served as an easement — adjacent to its lot for the purpose of constructing the sump. Earlier that year, the town finished the first phase of its stormwater mitigation project in the area, repairing an outfall pipe that broke during Hurricane Sandy and filling in the bluff with more than 2,000 cubic yards of fill to stabilize it and rebuild its slope.

The bluff had already eroded to a degree, but the hurricane created a 40-foot drop-off at the site and residents at the top of the bluff were worried about safety.

Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro said the work on the both bluff and the pipe were not meant to be the end of the project — the end goal was a recharge basin that would take the erosion pressure off the bluff.

“It was just a Band-Aid so the bluff didn’t erode any further,” he said in a phone interview.

Excavation on the sump has already begun, Losquadro said, and he expects the project to take at least another two months — possibly three if the weather does not cooperate.

The sump has other benefits, from both an environmental and a maintenance standpoint.

When water flows through the streets during rainfall, it picks up and carries dirt, bacteria and other pollutants with it. That contaminated water eventually drains into bodies of water like the Sound in some places. The recharge basin will filter the water naturally instead.

“Wherever we can, we don’t want water draining into the Long Island Sound,” Councilwoman Jane Bonner (C-Rocky Point) explained when the town was acquiring property for the recharge basin. “We want it to drain into the sump.”

In a phone interview Tuesday, Bonner said the project would save the town money in the long run, as there would be fewer erosion costs in the area.

Losquadro said the basin would also be “much less labor-intensive,” because the highway department will only have to clean it out about once every decade.

It can also hold much more water than a storm drain — the highway superintendent said storm drains can hold a couple of inches of water while the sump can take at least 8 inches, “which is an enormous rainfall.”

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The Noah Hallock house dates back to the early 1700s. File photo

By Julianne Cuba

After being closed for the winter, tours have resumed at the Noah Hallock Homestead in Rocky Point, on Hallock Landing Road.

The Rocky Point Historical Society acquired the property two years ago. Noah Hallock built the homestead in 1721 and eight generations of his descendants lived in the house until 1964, said Natalie Aurucci-Stiefel, president of the historical society.

Noah and his wife, Bethia, had three sons: Noah II, Josiah and William. All three sons were born in the house their father built and served in the military as Patriots during the Revolutionary War.

The elder Noah, who died in 1773 at age 77, was buried beside his wife, who died in 1766, in the family’s cemetery, located on a hill behind the homestead. Bethia’s grave is the oldest in the Hallock family cemetery.

In 1964, another local family purchased the home, and lived there for almost 50 years.

Today, the homestead operates as a showcase and a museum of Rocky Point’s history. The tours, which are offered at 172 Hallock Landing Road on Saturdays from April through December, 1 to 3 p.m., showcase 15 rooms with information from the 1700s through the 20th century. One of the rooms focuses on radio history, Aurucci-Stiefel said.

The famed RCA Corporation, headed by David Sarnoff and based in New York City, had a radio transmitting station in the hamlet.

“We’re proud to feature Rocky Point’s history in this house,” Aurucci-Stiefel said. “Each room features original artifacts and photograph collections.”

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Amy Siebert, of Shirley, takes in the tulips at last year’s festival. File photo by Rohma Abbas

By Julianne Cuba

On Sunday, May 3, the 15th Annual Huntington Tulip Festival will take place in Heckscher Park in Huntington.

Founded by Councilman Mark Cuthbertson (D) and organized by the Town of Huntington, with chief festival sponsorship support from Astoria Bank, the tulip festival will be home to children’s activity booths, art exhibits and live performances. The festival will begin at 11 a.m., rain or shine.

“It’s a small-scale, family-oriented festival that really helps mark the beginning of spring with the blossoming of about 5,000 tulip bulbs,” Cuthbertson said in a phone interview this week.

Presented by the Huntington Arts Council, live performances will begin on the Chapin Rainbow Stage at noon. The Gizmo Guys will take the stage first, with a humor-filled performance appropriate for all ages, according to a town press release.

The Shinnecock American Indian Dancers will take the stage at 1:30 p.m., with a 45-minute dance presentation that will include audience participation. At 2:15 p.m., the Shinnecock American Indian Dancers will lead the re-enactment of the children’s parade that followed the 1920 dedication of Heckscher Park. It will include a new Tulip Festival Hat Contest for children and adults.

Paul Helou, an award-winning songwriter, actor and journalist, will be the final performer on the Chapin Rainbow Stage, at 3 p.m. Helou “performs a [blend] of bluegrass, Americana, roots and folk music for children that are high-energy, interactive events with quality original songs,” according to the press release.

On the same day, the 31st Annual Sheep to Shawl Festival presented by the Huntington Historical Society will take place at the historic Dr. Daniel W. Kissam House Museum and Barn. A free shuttle bus will transport visitors between the festivals.

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A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A scene from the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta at Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso

It was sink or swim for scores of Stony Brook students as they broke from studying to blow off steam.

Roth Pond, a 200-yard body of water in the middle of campus, is usually nothing more than a scenic spot to pass between classes. But on Friday, it became a hotbed of activity for the 26th annual Roth Pond Regatta, where students floated themselves along in makeshift boats constructed of nothing more than cardboard, duct tape and paint.

The event started in 1989 on the campus as a means for the students to break from the stress of finals season. Each year since, students have built boats to float anywhere from one to four people across the pond in the high-spirited and festive competition before exams engulf the campus.

This year’s theme was mainstream fantasy, and the floats reflected just that. The floating vessels were made of simple everyday products, but the end products ranged anywhere from nostalgic shout-outs, to mock creatures plucked out of fantasyland. Students crafted boats like the Pirates of the Caribbean’s Black Pearl, the genie from Aladdin and even a Space Jam float with a cardboard Michael Jordan reaching for a long dunk at the watercraft’s front side.

Senior Kareem Ibrahem joined his classmates as he got ready to launch his own sleek ship — a mishmash of duct tape and cardboard with a giraffe’s head dangling atop a long cardboard neck. Friends were asking him the name of his vessel.

“Don’t sink about it,” he said with an ear-to-ear grin.

The event was hosted by the Undergraduate Student Government and included students from various student organizations, administrative departments and alumni.

This version corrects a typo in the description of the Space Jam boat.

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Sunken Meadow State Park Director Jeffrey J. Mason meets Smithtown West High School's Rachel Gladstone to review plans for the Sunken Meadow Recycling Project 5K Race and 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids. Photo from Allison Gayne

A Smithtown West High School junior is going the extra mile and hosting a recycling project in the form of a 5-kilometer race at Sunken Meadow State Park in June to promote a greener mindset across Long Island.

Rachel Gladstone, 17, has arranged the first ever Sunken Meadow Recycling Project 5K Race and 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids at Sunken Meadow State Park as her community project for the Girl Scout Gold Award she is working toward.

“I wanted to do something for the community at Sunken Meadow [State Park],” Gladstone said in a phone interview. “I really wanted to do something big and worthwhile.”

The cross-country runner said the idea came to her while passing through the park and seeing just how many recyclables were being thrown into the trash. She coupled that knowledge with knowing the park hosts several races, and let the two notions work together to form her own unique project.

“Every time I go there, I see trash cans always full to the top with bottles,” Gladstone said.

Gladstone said one of her biggest goals is to take the money raised at the run and buy recycling bins to place at various locations throughout the 1288-acre park and to also help promote recycling behavior by taking extra measures to make the bins visible to the public.

The teen said she is very big into environmental science and recycling, and she hopes to study it at the college level once she graduates form high school. Her mom, Ellyn Gladstone, said her daughter has been interested in recycling since an early age and she is happy to see her putting this project together.

The Gold Award that Gladstone is working so hard toward is the highest achievement in girl scouting, she said. It is a seven-step project that challenges the scout to change the world, and requires a minimum 80 hours of work — something Gladstone is sure to surpass as she continues to organize and promote the race.

According to one of Gladstone’s troop leaders, Paula Rybacki, the high school student has achieved all the major awards since becoming a girl scout in elementary school and the project she is working on is one of the biggest she has seen.

“This project is very different,” Rybacki said. “I’m really proud of her.”

Jeffrey Mason, the park director at Sunken Meadow State Park, said he was approached by Gladstone, who was hoping to make a difference, and he quickly got on board with the idea as he understands the six bins the park has now is not enough.

“We’re going to put them out in key locations and find the best fit where they get utilized,” Mason said. “We are going to start out small, the more people see, the more education.”

The event will kick off on June 13 with its 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids at 9:15 a.m. followed by the 5-kilometer run at 10 a.m. An award ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. to recognize top overall males and females in various age groups.

Race participants can take advantage of an early bird special entry fee of $20 until May 1. After that the fee is $25 until the day before the race. On the day of the race, runners will pay $30 to participate.

Smithtown has been doing its part to increase the frequency and accessibility of recycling, recently inking a deal with several neighboring municipalities to bring single-stream recycling to residents across the Island.

The various deals help Smithtown team up with other communities to share resources, making it easier for residents to recycle in one bin and have the items transferred at a minimal cost.

The town has already linked up with Brookhaven, the incorporated villages of Lloyd Harbor and Asharoken, to name a few.

And as the race approaches, Gladstone said she hopes this is just the beginning of a greater shift in recycling across the Island. She said she would like to hold a similar event annually at parks across Long Island to help promote recycling.

“I realize I’m not too young to make a difference,” Gladstone said. “This is just the beginning.”

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Chabad co-directors Rabbi Chaim and Rivkie Grossbaum visit the site of the new building construction on Nicolls Road. Photo from Rebecca Itzhaky

The days of celebrating in rented spaces are coming to an end for the North Shore-based Chabad at Stony Brook Jewish community.

Since acquiring its first space at the Lake Grove Jewish Center in 1990, Chabad at Stony Brook is finally breaking ground on its home turf with a new facility being built on Nicolls Road, much closer to the epicenter of its Three Village neighbors. The group will celebrate the new beginning with a groundbreaking ceremony on May 7 at 5:30 p.m. in anticipation of the summer 2016 building opening.

Chabad has been home to more than 400 families from Smithtown to Port Jefferson, but has relied on rental spaces throughout the year to host key events like the High Holiday services and popular holiday celebrations. The Shabbat services have also been held at the rabbi’s home.

Rabbi Motti Grossbaum of Chabad at Stony Brook said planning events like Bar and Bat Mitzvahs has become a logistical headache for the group, making the potential of a new space a welcome addition to the family.

“Since 1987, Chabad at Stony Brook has been like ‘the wandering Jew,’” Grossbaum said in a statement. “Though Chabad was fortunate to acquire the Lake Grove Jewish Center in 1990, it was not a perfect fit. For one thing, the location was 15-20 minutes away from the larger Jewish community in Stony Brook and other surrounding towns on Suffolk County’s north shore. Also, the building was too small to accommodate Chabad’s ever-growing attendance.”

The new facility was made possible thanks to a $1,000,000 grant from Edward and Vivian Merrin, founders of the Merrin Gallery in New York City and the project is being led by Kevin Harney of Stalco Construction and it is also being financed by John Tsunis of Gold Coast Bank.

“The new building will serve as a home and a hub for the rapidly growing Jewish community in the Three Village area and beyond,” Grossbaum said.

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