Village Coffee Market in Stony Brook offers a new coffee blend for customers to buy for frontline workers. Photo by David Luces
Local businesses have begun to reopen and continue on their path to recovery, though it hasn’t stopped owners to continue efforts to give back to hospital workers, first responders and residents in need.
Village Coffee Market’s “Here Comes the Sun” blend to show support for health care workers. Photo by David Luces
For Gary Contes, co-owner of Village Coffee Market in Stony Brook, there’s a deeper meaning to his coffee-blend-pack donations to hospital workers. He created a special blend of coffee called “Here Comes the Sun,” named after the Beatles song that is played throughout the halls when COVID-19 patients leave Stony Brook University Hospital.
“For patients, the song means a new beginning, a new day, and it’s just a sense of optimism they get,” Contes said. “So, I kind of wanted to share that same feeling with the hospital workers with this blend.”
The owner said individuals can purchase a 12-pack of the special blend for $7.50, though the catch is that they don’t get the coffee, the frontline workers do. Contes then donates the packs and makes deliveries to workers at Stony Brook Hospital and other health care facilities.
Contes said the “Here Comes the Sun” coffee is a medium roast that has a slight smoky taste to it and a “nice full body flavor.”
“I wanted to come up with a great tasting coffee which would appeal to anyone,” he added. “Everyone that buys a box, they get to write a message that will be seen by the workers who open up the box. This is our special way of saying thanks to them for all they do.”
So far Contes has donated more than 220 boxes and hopes to make it to 1,000 in the coming months.
“All our customers have been eager to participate,” he said. “It’s always very touching when we go out to deliver. Recently, we had one of the workers start to cry when she saw the boxes of coffee. My wife is a nurse, and I have other family members in the health care field, so, this means a lot to me. As a businessman who is struggling right now, if it steers people to come here and buy coffee for themselves, I would be thrilled, but if given the choice and they had to buy one item, buy a box of ‘Here Comes The Sun.’”
Bagel Express in Setauket sells signs to show support for essential workers and uses the profits to donate meals to local hospitals. Photo from David Prestia
David Prestia, owner of Bagel Express in Setauket, has been donating meals to Mather, St. Charles and Stony Brook University hospitals for the last few months but also was suffering businesswise from the shutdown. He then came up with an idea that would get customers and the community involved.
“Our customers wanted to pitch in and help the first responders,” he said. “That’s when we came up with the sign idea.”
Prestia began selling support signs for frontline workers. The signs cost $20 with the funds going toward sending food to local hospitals and first responders. Customers are encouraged to display their signs outside their homes. He said Decal Designs Mobile only charged $5 each to have the signs made, and Michael Ardolino, founder and owner-broker of Realty Connect USA, donated funds to offset the cost.
Prestia has already sold more than 400 of the signs.
“The community got really involved and wanted to donate,” the business owner said. “It is great to spread awareness and give those workers thanks. It’s amazing how many of our signs we see in the area. It is wonderful to see. I’ve been here for 30 years and it is great to see the community coming together.”
Residents have been doing their part to help those in need during the pandemic as well.
Jake Shangold
Jake Shangold, a Ward Melville High School senior, has been raising money for Island Harvest food bank by starting a virtual food drive, www.fooddriveonline.org/islandharvest/jake.
Shangold began handing out flyers in the community and promoted the food drive on social media. He was able to raise $3,000 to help those in need of meals. With the money raised, Island Harvest will be able to provide 6,000 meals.
“I wanted to help people in need, especially with what’s going on with the pandemic,” he said. “I was very happy I was able to raise so much money, and I hope to continue doing these food drives in the future.”
Know of a Three Village business or resident doing good in the community? If so, email [email protected] to let us know.
From left, Steve Henaghan is still active marching for LGBT rights; Leah Gustavson is a regular participant in Long Island’s historical martial arts scene; David Kilmnick is the president of the LGBT Network on LI.
For several weeks in a row people of all races have crowded the streets of Huntington, sidewalk to sidewalk, calling for an end to prejudice.
A 1991 front page of Newsday along with the one of the original tank tops for the first LGBT pride parade in Huntington. Photo by Kyle Barr
Those same streets in Huntington village have held other marches, but one started just under 30 years ago still holds unique significance today. Go back to June 9, 1991, the sky was open blue while the sun blazed down on people who also marched through Huntington against prejudice. It was a time of oversized glasses, poofy hair and tees tucked into jeans. Many marched with rainbow flags in their hands and pride on their faces, but some also reportedly marched with bags over their heads. It wasn’t a fashion statement, it was a way to hide their identities during a time when many people in the LGBT community would be retaliated against at the workplace or even at home.
About 800 people stood between close to 3,000, according to what journalists wrote at the time. Most cheered for the marchers, but others screamed at them, warning of eternal damnation and holding signs reading, among other expletives, “Kill Yourself.” SWAT teams lined the surrounding roofs because there had been threats of violence toward the marchers.
It was June 10, 1991, when the first Long Island LGBT-led parade strode through Huntington. Marchers shouted “We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it.” That parade would be a landmark day for the LGBTQ community on Long Island, but for the people who marched, it meant much more than that.
“It was the proudest day of my entire life,” said Leah Gustavson, a Rocky Point resident and one of the original members of the committee who established the parade. “I felt like we started something, stuck to it and got to an end goal.”
That parade took place 24 years before the U.S. Supreme Court gave gay people the right to marry. It was 29 years before the court confirmed it was unconstitutional for businesses to discriminate against people on the basis of sex, a huge boon to the LGBTQ community, which has long experienced discrimination when applying for jobs and in the workplace.
But getting it together would take months of backbreaking effort destroying barriers, including taking a Long Island town to federal court to win their right to assemble.
Today, as protests and marches have broken out at every corner of the U.S., the memories of the struggle to have voices heard three decades ago adds a new perspective for those advocating for an end to prejudice. It’s a glimpse of how far Long Island has come and how far it might still have to go.
Beginnings of the March
The Lesbian/Gay Pride and Freedom Committee was established after June, nominally known as pride month, in 1990. It was after the group had attended other major pride celebrations that year, including the New York City pride parade as well as one earlier in March on St. Patrick’s Day, where members of an Irish gay and lesbian protest group led a parade before the main parade could start.
A few members of the local gay and lesbian community were having meetings at a gathering place near Stony Brook University. The school had an active LGBT scene with a school club found in the basement of the old Union building on campus. It was in a space that was once a closet, something that became an oft-used joke in the small burgeoning community.
No one who was there remembers who exactly brought up the idea, but everyone who was in that room one spring day remembers the conversation about pride parades and the simple question, why wasn’t there one on Long Island? Why didn’t they try to start one, because, after all, how hard could it be?
In that small group of likeminded people, what would become the 10-member Long Island Pride and Freedom Committee was born. Gustavson related that gung ho attitidue to a sense of ”ignorant optimism,” something that can be a powerful force, especially for people who know things need to change, and that now is the time to do it.
She, and other original members of the committee, said coming together to plan this march was a way for many of these people who have long felt marginalized on Long Island to finally show they have a voice. Even still, numerous people on the committee would only publicly go by their first name, knowing they could be retaliated against in the workplace.
“We knew we were not necessarily welcome by people, but the point wasn’t to be welcomed, we were demanding that we would have equality.”
— Steve Henaghan
Those who were there look back on it as a time that was not nearly as fraught and violent as previous decades, but there still was massive underlying prejudice toward the gay community. Steve Henaghan, of Mastic, was another of the original committee members trying to get the parade started. In the 1980s, he and other gay/lesbian rights activists helped create a political action committee called Citizens for Equal Rights PAC to raise money for candidates that would support issues of equality.
“At that time very few would come forward and say they were supporting our issues,” Henaghan said. “In 1988 and ’91 we were making inroads politically especially within the Democratic Party.”
The committee approached several places throughout the Island to hold their march. In March of ’91 they received rejections from multiple towns and villages on the Island, including both the Village of Port Jefferson and Village of Northport.
The Record, one of a few Port Jefferson area newspapers at that time, wrote about the village board rejecting the application, saying trustees felt the committee was not “locally based,” citing that it was based in Upton, though committee members argued that was simply their mailing address.
The Port Jeff mayor at the time, Harold Sheprow, was cited as referencing the controversy of that year’s gay rights group in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Trustees argued a Sunday march would hurt businesses, create congestion and open up the village to having to host other marches. Trustee William Glass Jr. was quoted at the time as saying, “This is political with a ‘P.’”
Henaghan could not help but laugh at hearing that quote read to him again.
“It didn’t surprise us we were rejected, it angered us,” Henaghan said. “We knew we were not necessarily welcome by people, but the point wasn’t to be welcomed, we were demanding that we would have equality.”
Northport rejected the parade for similar reasons, especially citing it was policy to only permit “community based organizations” to schedule parades.
David Kilmnick was one of the original members of the LGPF Committee who now is president of the nonprofit LGBT Network, an association of nonprofits that looks to support the LGBT community on Long Island. He said if the committee didn’t end up securing a march route and permit, they were willing to do one anyway somewhere on Long Island, even if it potentially meant being arrested.
“We were told we would be arrested, we didn’t care,” he said. “It was our right to be able to do this. We were being flat out discriminated against because of our sexual orientation.”
With a number of rejections under their belts. LGPFC members knew they had to settle on one place, and that place was going to be Huntington.
Taking a Town to Court
The committee worked with police on creating a route through the town. Their original path was longer, about 1½ miles, but in speaking with Inspector Alden Berry of the Suffolk County Police Department, the group determined on a newer, shorter route that reduced the overtime cost for officers, closed only one lane of traffic and offered more protection to those demonstrating. By April 12, 1991, that route was approved by police and sent to Huntington.The group had already sent a request to the Huntington Highway Department. While they had confirmation the request was received, they didn’t hear back until after they sent out the notice of the parade route.
Huntington Highway Superintendent William Naughton, a Democrat, responded to the marchers with a letter the same day they sent in the revised route. The language used in the letter would become the basis for further legal action, one that would bring in the support of the American Civil Liberties Union.
From left, Steve Henaghan is still active marching for LGBT rights; Leah Gustavson is a regular participant in Long Island’s historical martial arts scene; David Kilmnick is the president of the LGBT Network on LI.
Along with citing overtime costs for the highway department and police, it said those looking to hold parades in the town should instead ask to be included in separate parades. It also read that, “Requests from several groups have been made in the past to hold additional parades, but my policy has always been to approve the traditional parades only.”
“We saw that as blatant discrimination, and we had the right just like every other group to have a march or parade,” said Kilmnick.
March planners got in contact with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which in turn picked out several attorneys to work on the issue. Two local attorneys were picked to lead the effort.
Mitchell Gittin, who is now an East Setauket resident and attorney with the Hauppauge-based Fitzgerald Law Firm, was then a volunteer on the legal committee of the NYCLU Suffolk Branch. He was tapped to lead the litigation effort alongside fellow attorney Joel Kupferman, who described himself as having been just recently out of law school back in early ’91.
“We tried to negotiate with them and asked them why they were so concerned and their reasons for denying the permit,” Kupferman said. At the time he was also a resident in Huntington. “[Huntington attorneys] said people get drunk and destroy property in these parades. I I told them we’ll concede that as soon as you stop having St. Patty’s Day parades — they were ridiculous concerns.”
The attorneys quickly noticed the language of the highway superintendent’s letter was not concurrent with basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution. Outright denying a march in line with the First Amendment because it was not one of those “traditional parades” did not stand up to scrutiny.
“That’s what was so gratifying with the case, because frankly the law was on our side,” Gittin said. “The other side didn’t have any kind of legal counterargument, you can put restrictions on gatherings … there was no reason from a logistical perspective the pride parade would have been more burdensome than any other parade — it really did come down really to discrimination.”
The attorneys sent a letter to the town May 9, but did not receive a response. Both the committee and Town of Huntington would end up in court.
The deadline of June 9 for the parade was fast approaching. In early June, both sides appeared in front of U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Wexler. Instead of a protracted back and forth, after just a few hours in court, the town agreed to grant the group a permit for the march.
Though the group did experience pushback from local elected officials there were a few that showed support, even if in small ways. New York State Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) was a Suffolk County legislator back in 1991. He said the LGPFC approached his office after being rejected by the Huntington highway superintendent. He told the assembled people that he was giving them approval to use his office’s parking lot as the end point for their parade.
“Back then there were a lot of officials who were afraid to take a stand,” he said.
Gitten said that recalling the case gives him a unique sense of pride.
“I look back on it, and not that it was a heroic thing, it was a lawyer job, I was in the right place at the right time,” he said. “It feels nice as a lawyer to look and having been part of a movement and part of a wave that’s still going on.”
The Day Of
The parade itself would be just three quarters of a mile, a short jaunt made by many pedestrians today in what is normally glowing nights on the town in historic Huntington village, or at least it was prepandemic. For the people at the march, it would be an experience none of them would ever forget.
The committee members took up positions at the head of the column. Moving up along Gerard Street, they marched down New York Avenue then turned east onto Main Street. Above them, marchers could see the hints of helmets and glint of rifles in the sunlight. SWAT snipers had been positioned on rooftops to watch over them, as there had been several threats of violence.
That was when the marchers saw the true extent of the crowds. Newsday reported at the time 3,000 people came out to see those in the parade. It was more than they expected, and surprisingly many were shouting support. Of course, there were many community members shouting at them, saying they would “go to hell” for what they were doing. Before it became well known thanks to the show “Game of Thrones,” those marching found use in shouting “shame, shame” at those heckling their procession.
“Our adrenaline was flowing so hard and strong and then we turned the corner, that’s where the protesters were,” Henaghan said. “It was like electricity was running through our bodies, we were so charged. You realize at that moment, you are not standing down, you are going to stand up. It was one of the greatest days of our lives,”
“In 30 years I will never forget that day, that day was a victory for all of Long Island.”
— David Kilmnick
There was a general sense of both exhilaration and apprehension. This was uncharted territory for them, despite participating in other pride parades. This one was theirs, and they had to own it.
“People would call it a parade, but it was a march,” Kilmnick said. “We didn’t have the pageantry, we marched down New York Avenue and had a rally in the back of Huntington Town Hall … In 30 years I will never forget that day, that day was a victory for all of Long Island.”
When they finally reached the end, the emotions of the day were overflowing.
“The relief was palpable,” Gustavson said. “People were hugging each other and cheering … A lot of people came to celebrate with us. Some of them were not gay, but a lot of them were. It was a party in the best sense of the word, it was celebratory.”
Douglas Futuyma, Stony Brook professor emeritus of evolutionary biology,was convinced to speak at the 1991 march in back of the town hall building. The professor has long been known on campus as an openly gay man, unafraid to talk about it in front of students when it came up. When it came time to speak at the rally, he wanted to talk about things beyond the biology of it, that gays and lesbians did not simply choose to be so, they were born that way. He spoke of Huntington’s native son Walt Whitman, and how that poet spoke to the quick of “humankind’s exploratory and vibrant spirit.” It was the fundamental question of human rights.
“It was certainly exhilarating, despite the heckling or harassment,” he said. “It was as it should have been, a celebration.”
Today and the Future
This month, the annual pride event was canceled due to the pandemic. Instead the LGBT Network held an online pride event June 14 featuring multiple celebrities and other local elected and civic leaders as speakers.
It’s been a roller coaster ride for the past 30 years with the annual pride parade. Gustavson left the committee after the third year. Henaghan stood on for several years before leaving as well. He came back on in the early 2000s, but again left the committee to its own devices.
The pride parade came under the auspices of the LGBT Network in its later years, and because of lagging participation a celebration was held instead of a parade in Huntington’s Heckscher Park. In 2017, the parade moved to Long Beach, and Kilmnick said the parade picked up steam once again. The LGBT Network president said last year an estimated 30,000 people participated. The biggest change from just a few decades ago, he said, is the number of young, school-age people coming out to march and support the annual parade.
SBU evolutionary biology professor Douglas Futuyma spoke at the first LI pride parade in ‘91. Photo from SBU
“In ’93, so many kids were being bullied in school, afraid to come to the parade,” he said. “We didn’t have any student groups that marched in that parade. Now they make up more than 50 percent of that parade.”
This year, the parade was set to move to Jones Beach after a dispute with Long Beach over a $70,000 fee the LGBT Network said other organizations did not have to pay for similar events. Leaders of the parade are hoping for a renewed involvement come 2021, which will be the 31st pride parade and its true 30-year anniversary.
But the fight for equality is not one lane for just one group of people. Those who spoke about their experience with the first pride parade all identified with those marching against police brutality and racism today.
Gustavson said things changed for the better in the past three decades, such as general awareness along with much more acceptance at the grade school level, but some things have not progressed nearly enough. For white gay people, she said things are “a lot better.” For gay people of color, trans people and especially trans people of color, there are way too many problems with prejudice both on the governmental and societal levels.
“It was as it should have been, a celebration.”
— Douglas Futuyma
“I don’t want to see violence, I never want to see violence,” she said. “But there are times when that’s what gets people talking and thinking and there are always people who will never understand why riots happen and why they destroy their own sh**. They will never understand that, and it’s passionate. When you’re passionate and you’re screaming because you’re afraid for your life, that it doesn’t really matter so much what gets ruined as far as ‘things’ go. Things are things. We’re fighting for our lives here, we’re fighting for our sanity, we’re fighting for our ability to walk in society without fear of being beaten to death because you’re a ‘fag,’ or because you’re Black.”
Henaghan, despite saying he has occasional bouts with pessimism, does believe the world is heading in the right direction. His partner for 23 years became his husband eight years ago, just a year after the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision. For the people marching in the streets today, he said many of those who spoke out against that march in ’91 are the same people or the ideological descendants of those who verbally harassed them 30 years ago.
“Many people will not let go of that hate they have, whether it’s for people of color, gays or lesbians, trans people, there are many people in our society they will not let go of that hate,” Henagan said. “They will fight you to the end. We still won’t stand for it.”
Ward Melville third baseman Brady Doran rips one deep. Baseball could be coming back this summer. Photo by Bill Landon
Beginning July 6, certain youth sports will be allowed to restart in regions of the state that are in Phase 3 of reopening. Long Island entered Phase 3 June 24.
Baseball, softball, gymnastics, field hockey, cross country, soccer, noncontact lacrosse, doubles tennis, rafting, paintball, water polo and swimming will be allowed to begin games and competitions.
Locally, a number of sports leagues have plans to resume play next month. Town of Brookhaven baseball is tentatively set to begin its summer season on July 13.
“We are excited to announce that we are planning on beginning our summer season the week of July 13. The plan would include an abbreviated season, ending approximately Aug. 23 (including playoffs),” a statement on the town’s website reads. “We are extremely thrilled and fortunate to have the opportunity of having a summer season for the kids. Please understand that there will have to be some accommodations and sacrifices made by teams in order to get a legitimate summer season played.”
In addition, the 2020 Varsity Wood Bat Tournament in Brookhaven will run through July 8-12 at Moriches Complex. High school baseball teams from the North Shore will be participating in the competition including the Newfield Wolverines and Centereach Cougars (Middle Country), Northport Tigers, Ward Melville Patriots, Kings Park Kingsmen, Port Jefferson Royals, Miller Place Panthers and the Shoreham-Wading River Wildcats.
Social distancing will be enforced at all sporting events, and the state mandates the events limit spectators to two individuals per athlete.
The level of risk for each sport has been determined by the New York State Department of Health’s interim guidance for sports and recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These guidelines apply to nonprofessional and noncollegiate sports and recreation activities (e.g. youth sports), inclusive of indoor and outdoor sports and recreation, as well as organized and nonorganized sports and recreation,” the document stated.
Sports that are deemed “high risk” will not be allowed to resume games July 6. Those include football, wrestling, ice hockey, rugby, basketball, contact lacrosse, volleyball, also competitive cheer and dance.
“Participants in higher risk sports and recreation activities may only partake in individual or distanced group training and organized no/low-contact group training,” according to the state’s guidelines.
County Executive Steve Bellone (D) was pleased that the county legislature passed the Child Protective Transformation Act this week.
Created after the death of eight-year old Thomas Valva, who died in his father’s garage from hypothermia, the package of six bills creates new measures to strengthen the child protective system, the improve oversight and to institute safeguards to protect children.
“This will ensure that [Child Protective Services] never operates the same way again,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters. “What happened to Thomas Valva can never happen again.”
The transformation act, which passed in the legislature June 23, puts in place measures to make sure the CPS is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible, Bellone suggested.
Bellone thanked Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Deputy County Executive Jon Kaiman and Deborah Thivierge, the Founder of the Elija School and the Elija farm for their help in this effort.
As for the viral figures, the numbers continue to remain within a safe range for the county.
The number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours was 50, bringing the total to 41,151. The percentage of people who tested positive for the coronavirus was 0.9 percent.
The number of people with the antibody to the virus stands at 18,513.
Hospitalizations declined by three to 85, while the number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds declined by one to 25.
Hospital occupancy overall was at 69 percent, while the percent of occupied ICU beds was at 59 percent.
In the last day, 14 people have been discharged from hospitals in the county.
The number of deaths from complications related to COVID-19 increased by 2 to 1,974.
The county distributed 25,000 pieces of personal protective equipment in the last day.
Separately, the county is canceling the movies scheduled for the rest of this week because of a problem with the equipment that needs repair. The county hopes to have those movies back up and running by next week.
Elwood Superintendent Ken Bossert. File photo by Elana Glowatz
Earlier on in the still-ongoing pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) spoke of his intentions to remake the lagging parts of society. In early May, the governor announced a new committee to “reimagine” education in New York state. He tapped the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to serve as just one of several “experts and stakeholders” for the initiative and named numerous people throughout the state to serve on the committee.
But since that was announced May 8, little has been heard from the committee. Among its 19 members, two are from Long Island, including Martin Palermo, a chemistry teacher at William Floyd High School who was designated a Master Teacher by New York State in 2016, and Jackie Duodu-Burbridge, of Copiague, who was described as a parent in a state release, but also ran unsuccessfully on the Working Families Party ticket for the Suffolk County 15th District seat vacated by former Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville).
Palermo, who is currently working on a doctorate of chemical education at Stony Brook University, was unable to respond to requests for comment by press time about what kinds of discussions were going on in the committee. Duodu-Burbridge could not be reached for comment.
How involved is the Gates foundation? It’s hard to tell, but the organization did tell the Washington Post in a statement it is recommending experts and contributing its own insights into how technology can enhance learning.
For some school district officials, these calls instead brought forth shivers of memories from a little less than a decade ago, with the advent of standardized testing and Common Core where teachers’ evaluations depended on how well their students scored. The Gates foundation played a major part in crafting that initiative.
Some district officials worried it would be an attempt to make distance learning more standard going forward, even when the pandemic has died down. Cuomo since clarified the position that distance or online learning could “never replace in-person learning with a teacher,” yet school officials have remained skeptical for a number of reasons, with many still feeling the governor is emphasizing replacing in-person learning.
Ken Bossert, the superintendent of the Elwood school district, a former head of the Port Jefferson School District and past president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association, said he did not believe there is any need to reimagine education.
“A lot of educators heard that and winced a little bit because there is this false perception that what we were doing pre-pandemic wasn’t in the best interest of students,” he said. “I don’t think school districts need to be reimagined, I think they need to be revised — I think there is always room for improvement.”
Comsewogue school district has a long history of actively decrying Common Core and New York State’s attempts at standardized testing. Former Superintendent Joe Rella, who passed earlier this year, was a major opponent of the 2012 implementation of Common Core, writing a letter to New York State against its implementation in 2013. He was at the forefront of a rally hosted later that year which gathered support from thousands of residents.
The district later implemented problem-based learning initiatives as a response to those earlier state standardizations, and has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools.
Comsewogue Superintendent Jennifer Quinn said the district is still waiting to see what comes out of the committee, especially since there has been little news since it was created.
“Each district has different populations, I don’t know if it will be one size fits all,” Quinn said. “I would like to see support for helping us with lower class sizes. All these social-distancing technologies, it’s very expensive. If we were going to come back to school, it’s very difficult to keep young kids apart.”
She added that the focus the committee has on online, technology-based learning and shared classrooms over the internet presents itself a huge, new problem. The pandemic has only exacerbated inequalities among some communities and districts on Long Island. Some districts have access to computers or Chromebook laptops they simply hand out to students. Others don’t have anything like that. Not to mention there is a wide disparity between households that have multiple devices that can access the internet and those that have few or none.
School districts are already internally trying to find ways to promote more technology in and out of the classroom, especially since the question of how schools will come back in the fall is still to be decided. Mount Sinai school board president, Robert Sweeney, has been on the board for the past nine years. He said the district has in the past dealt with issues over Common Core with creating its own agencies, books and instructions in-house when the state wasn’t offering much in the way of aid for teachers on the new material.
The district will be using a successful allocation under the Smart Schools Bond Act to bolster their internal networks, potentially increasing the school’s online options.
“How much technology can we get into the hands of our students, what can we do with classroom-based technology, what can we do with technology to our students at home?” Sweeney said. “Let’s take it out of these difficult times and put it into the new normal.”
Bossert was recently named to the New York State Education Department’s Regional Reopening Schools Task Force. He said a subcommittee of that group is specifically looking at tackling that lack of access to technology.
But in the end, he said such a reimagining committee should not be handled by the governor’s office.
“The governor should empower the state Education Department to work with the 700 school districts of the state,” Bossert said. “I’m not sure it should be a function of the governor’s office.”
Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the drowning death of a woman in Fort Salonga.
Fourth Precinct officers responded to a Fort Salonga home June 24 at approximately 6:10 p.m. after a resident called 911 reporting a woman floating in his backyard pool. When officers arrived, they found Carol-Jean Werkstell unresponsive in the water.
Werkstell, 76, was transported to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown where she was pronounced dead.
The class of 2018 moves tassels to recognize the transition from high school senior to graduate at the Ward Melville High School Commencement June 24. Photo by Andrea Paldy
The 2019-2020 academic year has been one filled with changes, and graduation plans have been no different.
In a letter to Ward Melville High School seniors and families earlier in June, Principal William Bernhard and 12th-grade Assistant Principal Erin Connolly announced that the school was developing a plan to host an in-person graduation Sunday, July 19. The decision came a month after plans were already made to hold five separate ceremonies during the week of June 22, which would have involved seniors being split into groups of five alphabetically and families being required to stay in their cars as one senior at a time got out of each vehicle to accept their diploma.
According to the June letter, the decision to cancel the drive-through graduation this week and revert back to an in-person ceremony was made after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) earlier in the month signed an executive order giving permission to host in-person graduation ceremonies beginning June 26 with a maximum of 150 people that meet the social-distancing guidelines.
The order propelled the high school to develop a new graduation plan for 2020 with the hopes that future changes will allow an in-person graduation for the class of more than 500 even though they are proceeding cautiously.
“If the current parameters are not relaxed by this new graduation date, the district will continue with the in-vehicle format on Monday, July 20, through Friday, July 24,” the letter reads. “Social-distancing guidelines, including masks and reduced numbers in attendance, must still be in place for any live event.”
The school plans for each graduate to be restricted to two guests, and when students pick up their caps and gowns, there will be a packet with a colored parking pass in order to enter the grounds on graduation day.
Jennifer Catalano, whose daughter Rachael is graduating this year, was pleased to hear the news.
“I’m happy that the school district has gone above and beyond to make graduation as traditional as possible,” she said. “My daughter is happy she will be able to turn her tassel and partake in the traditional cap toss.”
Senior Jake Shangold was also glad to hear of the possibility of an in-person ceremony.
“I know as a senior it would be nice to have the whole class together to share one last moment,” he said. “I know Principal Bernhard and Superintendent Pedisich are doing all they can to make sure seniors are being celebrated.”
Salutatorian Matthew Fiorella, who will be reading a speech at the ceremony along with valedictorian William Sun, is looking forward to a “relatively normal graduation.”
“I was happy that we were still able to have a graduation ceremony when the drive-through plan was created, but being able to have a true in-person graduation is exciting,” he said.
Numbers included are from those who went to the polls Tuesday and those who voted early. Due to the abundance of absentee ballots requested by Long Islanders a final tally of votes won’t be completed until July 1.
So far, results have shown close primaries for Democrats in both the U.S. District 1 Congressional seat and for the New York State Senate District 1 position. Perry Gershon leads for the congressional position with just 166 votes over the person currently in second place Nancy Goroff.
Laura Ahearn leads the pack of Dems with a total of 2,360 votes, a little more than 200 than the person in second place, Valerie Cartright.
Other races are not so close. U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY-3) leads with over 20 percent more than the next candidate.
Laura Jens-Smith has a near 50 point lead over fellow Democrat William Schleisner, with both seeking the New York State Assembly District 2 seat held by Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk).
U.S. Congress – 1st District (Democratic)
Perry Gershon – 33.5% – 5,166 votes
Nancy Goroff – 34.37% – 5,002 votes
Bridget Fleming – 27.91% – 4,062 votes
Gregory Fischer – 2.21% – 322 votes
U.S. Congress – 3rd District (Democratic)
Thomas Suozzi – 58.93% – 8,374 votes
Melanie D’Arrigo – 32.7% – 4,646 votes
Michael Weinstock – 8.37% – 1,189 votes
New York State Senator – 1st District (Democratic)
Laura Ahearn – 31.08% – 2,360 votes
Valerie Cartright – 27.92% – 2,120 votes
Thomas Schiavoni – 23.86% – 1,812 votes
Skyler Johnson – 12.45% – 945 votes
Nora Higgins – 4.69% – 356 votes
New York State Assembly – 2nd District (Democratic)
The Smithtown School District received nearly four times as many votes for this year's school budget compared to last years. File photo
By Odeya Rosenband
School districts across Suffolk County have seen a sizable increase in voter turnout for their 2020-21 budget elections, in comparison with previous years.
2019 Budget Vote Tallies
SWR: 1,458
Rocky Point: 916
Miller Place: 783
Mount Sinai:1,381
Port Jeff: 719
Comsewogue: 812
Middle Country: 2,058
Three Village: 2,087
Smithtown: 2,776
2020 Budget Vote Tallies SWR: 2,947 (+1,458)
Rocky Point: 2,913 (+1,997)
Miller Place: 3,016 (+2,233)
Mount Sinai:2,965 (+1,584)
Port Jeff: 1,387 (+668)
Comsewogue: 3,349 (+2,537)
Middle Country: 7,639 (+5,581)
Three Village: 9231 (+7,244)
Smithtown: 11,071 (+8,293)
Notably, as opposed to in-person, all voting was conducted through a mail-in ballot this year due to the threat of COVID-19. This process made voting more readily accessible to all community members, who have largely been under stay-at-home orders as the county remained in Phase 2 at the time of the elections.
Among North Shore school districts covered by TBR News Media, the Hauppauge school district witnessed the most significant change, receiving nearly five times more voters than they did last year. Like every district, Hauppauge’s budget passed but is expecting possible cuts in state aid later in the year. This anticipation is another factor that helps to explain the increased voter turnout, as this upcoming school year’s budget is highly sensitive.
Kenneth Bossert, superintendent of Elwood school district, noted that despite the increase in voters, the ratio of people who supported the budget to those who didn’t remained similar between the two years. “Most budgets that stay under the tax cap pass,” he said. Voter turnout in Elwood increased by 253 percent from last year, with 3,985 total voters.
Not only has voting been made more accessible this year due to the mail-in format, but the fact that more people are at home suggests that people have more time to think about their local districts. With districts trying to formulate accommodations for the next year, keeping in mind the ever-changing nature of health protocols, district heads have routinely called this year’s school budgets more crucial than normal.
In terms of the number of new voters, Smithtown Central School District displayed the greatest difference with 8,295 more people voting than just last year. Interim Superintendent Russell Stewart said that, “The support [voters] have given us during this budget season [will] allow us to continue to offer the best education possible to our students.”
The collective increase in voter turnout for the North Shore school districts’ 2020-21 budgets — by more than threefold overall — indicates that mail-in ballots have been more successful than the previous in-person voting.
It is a unique comparison this year to other political votes nationwide, which have also had to contend with limitations from the pandemic. While votes were still being tallied Wednesday, June 24 for the 2020 state and local primaries, turnout is expected to be lower than in similar primaries in 2018. The number of polling places on Long Island have been consolidated, and instead of absentee ballots sent directly to homes, voting forms had to be requested and sent in before deadline the night of June 23.
In 2018, the most contentious primary for the area was for the Democratic Party contender for the U.S. Congressional District 1 seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY1). Two years ago the total number of votes equaled 20,331. While votes were still being tallied by press time, the number of total votes for people who voted in person isnearly 5,000 less than last election, according to data from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Full results will not be known until after July 1 when all mailed-in votes are counted.
As of press time, Perry Gershon is currently leading for the Congressional District 1 seat. Laura Ahearn is also currently leading for the New York State Senate District 1 seat by a few hundred votes over Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station).
Community members and public officials gather in Smithtown for a public hearing on the development of the Flowerfield/Gyrodyne property in St. James in January. Photo by David Luces
While plans are not set in stone, Gyrodyne in St. James now has some guidance regarding its proposed sewage treatment plant after a recent meeting of the Suffolk County Sewer Agency.
During a June 22 Zoom meeting, the agency members unanimously granted Gyrodyne what is known as conceptual certification for the plant, explaining that certification gives the applicant guidance regarding the type of wastewater disposal methods but is not an official approval.
Currently, the Town of Smithtown is conducting an environmental review of Gyrodyne’s proposal to subdivide the 75-acre-property to build a 150-room hotel with a restaurant, two assisted living centers, two medical office parks and a 7-acre sewage treatment plant.
If approved, the Gyrodyne Sewer Treatment Plant, which can handle 100,000 gallons per day of wastewater, could possibly be connected to new sewer lines in St. James.
Before the June 22 meeting, the county agency received letters opposing the approval of the treatment plant from state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), county Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Setauket Harbor Task Force co-founder and trustee George Hoffman, environmentalist Carl Safina, chair of the Greater Stony Brook Action Coalition/United Communities Against Gyrodyne, Cindy Smith, and others asking that any kind of approval not be granted.
Englebright wrote in his June 19 letter that even conceptualized certification would violate the intent and spirit of the State Environmental Quality Review Act. He also listed a sewage treatment plant would have a significant impact on Stony Brook Harbor, which is only a mile and a half from the proposed STP. The concern also was expressed by other writers.
Englebright said in his letter that the applicant only included the onsite wastewater needs when it came to the certification.
“Yet the applicant’s own SEQRA filing and numerous news reports indicate plans to tie in the St. James Business District, which is currently installing sewer pipes on Lake Avenue which would nearly double the amount of wastewater discharged to groundwater to 170,000 [gallons per day],” Englebright wrote.
During the Zoom meeting, Hoffman said if someone was looking for the worst spot to put a STP, the Gyrodyne property would be it. Smith said that the entire area should be studied, including watersheds all along Route 25A.
Safina was also on hand for the Zoom meeting.
“The Gyrodyne plan appears to be an attempt to simply pull a fast one on all the residents in and around the Stony Brook Harbor watershed,” he said.
Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) added his comments during the Zoom meeting. While he said, “I wish this property was preserved forever,” he added that the owner could do whatever it wanted with it.
“I’d rather have open space but I’m a realist,” he said.
Mark Wagner from Cameron Engineering attended the meeting to represent Gyrodyne. He said the treatment plant would actually decrease the nitrogen leaving the site and going into the watershed.
Hauppauge-based attorney Tim Shea addressed concerns voiced about Gyrodyne selling off land parcels in the future. He said while the company anticipated selling off such parcels, buyers would have to enter a property owners association. Members of the association would be required to maintain the STP.
Before Gyrodyne can move forward with constructing the STP, the Town of Smithtown must complete the SEQRA review and the county sewage agency must grant final approval.
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