CLOSE

Yearly Archives: 2021

by -
0 340
A truck from the Town of Huntington plows the street on Feb. 1.

The first day of February reminded us that winter is still here, and a foot or more of snow can fall from the sky at any time wreaking havoc on our everyday lives. Heavy snowfalls may be welcomed by skiers and children, but for everyone else the snow can be a nuisance and even a danger.

On Monday, as with previous storms, weather forecasters and elected officials reminded residents to stay off roads if they didn’t need to go out. In the past, despite those warnings, many found themselves still having to go to work. Nowadays, after trying to navigate business during a pandemic for months, companies have learned that a good deal of work can be done from home.

For nearly a year, employers and employees all over the country have embraced the use of email, Google, Zoom, messaging platforms such as Slack and more. Some in New York had no choice in the beginning as many businesses in the state that were deemed nonessential were required to close down. Others have chosen, even after the shutdowns were lifted, to continue having employees work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The use of modern technology has kept the work flowing and employees connected. Many have found that their workers are more efficient as there are fewer distractions at home, and without having to deal with their commutes, many are willing to take the time they would have been in the car, bus or train and use it to do more work.

Working from home can be a game changer not only during long-term shutdowns or for taking care to keep employees healthy, but it can also be used when driving just isn’t wise, especially for workers who have strict deadlines to meet. Imagine, now employees on a snowy day are less stressed because they don’t have to worry about hazardous roads.

During a pandemic, the work-from-home option has helped to keep employees healthy, and on the day of a storm, it helps keep them safe. In turn, the fewer people on the road, the fewer calls police officers receive, which in turn keeps them safe, too. Because, it doesn’t matter what type of car a person has, whether big or small, if snow is blowing across the roads and visibility is compromised, it’s not wise to be on the road

Law enforcement and health care workers need to be out on the roads to get to their jobs to keep the public safe and healthy, the rest of our jobs aren’t as essential.

Let’s take what we’ve learned in 2020 and apply it in the future to keep residents safe. If there is one lesson that we can take with us from the pandemic, it’s that things can be done differently and still produce the same results.

Will there be more snow this winter? We don’t know, but what we do know we’re ready for it. Bring it on!

by -
0 433
Photo from Pixabay

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

For the past week, I’ve had birds on my brain.

For starters, Central Park birders headed to the famous urban greenway recently to catch sight of a snowy owl, the first time people documented the presence of the bird in the park in about 130 years. 

I wrote to a bird expert, Noah Strycker, who is both a celebrated avian author, having written “Birding without Borders,” and a master’s candidate at Stony Brook University in the laboratory of Heather Lynch, a penguin scientist and the IACS Endowed Chair for Ecology & Evolution.

Strycker responded to numerous questions about the owl and the snowstorm that blanketed the region earlier this week.

In response to a question about exactly what might bring a snowy owl to the city, Strycker suggested that these birds often “irrupt,” a word for traveling greater distances than normal, south from their normal Arctic range in winters following good breeding summers. 

“Their appearance in New York may be related to an abundance of lemmings in the Arctic last summer,” Strycker wrote. In other words, these well-fed birds may have been able to journey further from the Arctic after a bountiful summer.

While Strycker didn’t catch sight of the owl this time, he did see one on Long Island last winter. They appear on the south shore almost every year, although it’s unusual to see one in Central Park because they prefer beaches and open areas, which are closer to a normal tundra habitat.

As for the rare birds Strycker has seen in the area, he said he got to see a Western Tanager and an Ash Throated Flycatcher in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn this fall. These are birds from the western part of the country, which don’t visit the Empire State too often.

Vagrant birds, which occur in areas outside their typical range, can appear in the area, a byproduct of a wrong turn during a long migration. So, what happens to birds during a snowstorm, I wondered.

For the snowy owl, if he were still here, the precipitation probably wouldn’t have been much of a problem, as his name suggests.

“Flying through falling snowflakes isn’t as much of an issue as flying in high winds, which do, occasionally, literally blow birds off course,” Strycker wrote.

During the storm, many bird species will tuck themselves in a protected spot, like in a dense tree to ride out the flakes.

Noah Strycker with a northern saw-whet owl

“This is a good time to watch your hedges and evergreen trees, which provide nice cover in the winter,” Strycker suggested.

Strycker said people could do seed eating birds — like sparrows, finches, cardinals, doves, chickadees, and jays — a favor by restocking a feeder before a snowstorm.

“They will all come to bird feeders for sunflower seeds and suet,” he said.

Snowy owls, on the other hand, don’t need handouts or feeders. They find their food, typically small mammals, by using their keen senses of sight and hearing. Shaped like a disc, an owl’s face concentrates faint sounds of rustling under the snow, allowing it to find prey it can’t see.

Strycker has always wanted to find an owl footprint in the snow, which looks like a snow angel. The owl lands on the snowy landscape to find its prey and lifts off, leaving footprint evidence of its meal.

As for the effect of the snow on a bird’s survival, Strycker said most of the birds in the area manage through the colder months.

“Snowstorms have been occurring in New York for a very long time, so birds that spend the winter here have mostly adapted to surviving them,” Strycker wrote.

by -
0 237
Photo from Pixabay

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

When General Motors announced last week that the company would aim to sell only electric cars and trucks by 2035, it shook up the industry. There are already electric cars on the road, although they number fewer than one percent.

Tesla, the electric car maker, has been much in the news lately since Wall Street values the company at more than ten times that of General Motors, and indeed, more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors combined. 

Nonetheless, this was a sharp turn for G.M. And as the largest automaker in the United States and the fourth largest in the world, what G.M. does affects everyone else down the automotive line.

It is no coincidence that the announcement came only a day after President Biden signed an executive order directing his administration to fight the problem of climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency is developing tough new tailpipe pollution regulations to control the largest source of planet-warming emissions in the short term. G.M. is aligning itself with the new administration’s goal in its drive to electric power. Furthermore, just three months ago, China ordered that most vehicles sold there must be electric by 2035. China is G.M.’s and the world’s largest market.

So all roads would seem to be pointing to a preponderance of electric cars by 2035, at least as of the present. But there remains a significant hurdle in the production of electric cars. While countries can certainly create charging stations along the roads in the same fashion as we now have gas stations, and President Biden has asked for 500,000 public charger stations to be built by 2030, the challenge is the batteries required by the cars. 

The battery packs have to be big, and right now to be big means to be expensive. Gasoline engines for equivalent cars cost less than half as much. China is the leading producer of these batteries, and of electric motors, which is not surprising since Chinese leadership has long viewed its dependence on oil imports as a considerable vulnerability. 

Therefore, major auto companies, like Daimler and Toyota, are already manufacturing their electric cars in China. So will many of the Ford Mustang Mach-E models be made there. Tesla started making cars in Shanghai over a year ago to sell in China.

So, folks, it would seem that in our not-too-distant future, we are destined to own electric cars. G.M. is planning to spend $27 billion to introduce 30 electric models by 2025, just a short generation away for those buying new cars this year. They are building a plant in Ohio to make batteries for those vehicles and to develop better batteries. G.M. now feels it could make electric vehicles that would cost no more than gasoline ones. And when G.M. in October offered its Hummer electric pick-up truck, enough orders had come in within a day to fill the entire year’s planned production. 

The Chinese have cleverly offered their huge consumer market in exchange for technical information. Through joint ventures with companies of other nations, along with their own considerable research, they have become the leader in battery development. Further rounding out the picture for the urgency of electric vehicles is the ban by Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands on new gasoline and diesel cars as of 2030.

Utility companies will have to improve their output by as much as 25 percent, which they can do at considerable expense. Guess who will be paying the tab! But the increased rates should be offset by the savings in gasoline, at least that would be the plan.

Power plants would also have to engage in some sort of rotation so that not everyone can charge their vehicles at the same time. They would also help the global climate change situation by using more solar and wind instead of coal and natural gas, in short by cleaning up the power grid.

by -
0 371
Photo from Jim Lennon

By Daniel Dunaief

Kevin O’Connor, CEO of BNB Bank, is focused on the bread and butter businesses of his bank and of the communities he serves: small businesses.

O’Connor ensured that BNB,  with its Bridgehampton National Bank branches, dove headfirst into the first Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, from the federal government in the first round, lending over $1 billion to more than 4,000 businesses. That is in addition to the $400 million Dime Bancorp, which plans to merge with BNB later this year, loaned to small businesses.

In the second round, O’Connor expects about 30 to 40% of the businesses that received loans in the first round will apply for additional funding.

In addition, O’Connor expects that customers who are seeking a second round of PPP will likely return to the bank they used in the first round, in part because businesses will be applying for a second draw on a loan, rather than for a new loan.

“We’re hoping that makes the paperwork easier,” he said.

So far, about 10% of the businesses that borrowed through the PPP have asked for forgiveness on their loan. Most of the businesses that sought forgiveness received it, especially if they used it for the anticipated purposes.

O’Connor is eager to see these small businesses, whom he lauded for their contributions to the areas they serve, survive the ongoing hardship created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time that a vaccine offers hope, these small businesses remain in perilous condition, as the percentage of positive tests continues to climb and hospitals handle an increase in patients.

Small businesses “don’t have a unified voice,” said O’Connor. The BNB chief executive called these small businesses the “lifeblood” of the communities.

The PPP program presents an opportunity for BNB to provide funding to a range of customers.

The success of the program led non-customers who were friends of customers to seek out financial support for their struggling businesses from BNB.

O’Connor said BNB hopes to expand their interactions with these new customers into full-service relationships, providing a range of other banking products.

No Red Microphones

O’Connor said BNB has focused in recent years on enhancing the product knowledge from their employees.

“We trained our people better on our technology so they can better explain it,” O’Connor said. “Branch managers weren’t using the mobile app. How can they sell it if they weren’t using it themselves?”

While the technology hasn’t changed, it has become better for customers because bankers can explain it better.

During the pandemic, O’Connor has made numerous efforts to reach out to bank employees, hosting conference calls and zoom calls. O’Connor urged bank employees to keep their cameras on during those calls. In smaller meetings, he also asked his coworkers to unmute their phones, to enable an open dialog among the staff.

“If I see red microphones, I ask [that employees] turn them on. We’re talking here. This is a conversation,” he said.

Vaccinations

While he led the bank during the pandemic, O’Connor also experienced COVID firsthand, when he contracted the virus. He said his children were worried about him, but that his case was “pretty mild.”

The virus “makes you recognize that we’re a part of something bigger, whether we’re talking about PPP or worry about trying to keep the lights on in your building,” he said.

While some people are receiving the vaccine, O’Connor said he wasn’t comfortable requiring everyone to receive shots.

“I’d be hard-pressed to do that,” he said. When it is his turn to get a shot, O’Connor said he would take the vaccine.

While the vaccine has given him reason for optimism, he said the bank has been cautious in the last few weeks with its staff.

“We’ve sent a lot of our employees home,” O’Connor said. “We’re back to a skeleton crew in Hauppauge. We’re monitoring our branches” amid an uptick in cases.

O’Connor and other bank executives are looking at the total number of branches the bank may need in the future. The company has continued to generate business in its branches, although some are “busier than others. We’re going to continue to look at that.”

The Chief Executive described branches as “outposts” in the community, and believed that the branch decisions would be an “evolutionary process.” 

O’Connor said the virus may lead employees to a better awareness of the needs of their coworkers.

“You may come to work every day, but another man or woman isn’t there. They may have an underlying health issue and don’t want to talk about it. You’d like to think it’s making better people of us. At some point, people who can, should do and people who can’t, let’s take care of them,” O’Connor said.

Merger

O’Connor said the combination with Dime is a true merger of equals. The top executives from the two banks represent a 50/50 split with Dime.

“I feel comfortable that the culture will come together,” O’Connor said. “We will be a unique bank. There’s nothing like this. It’s truly Long Island-based.”

O’Connor said the bankers at both institutions have a “passion for what we do.”

And he respects entrepreneurs and small business owners, many of whom have pivoted to other products or modes of delivery for their products.

“So many [small business owners] have made so many sacrifices,” he said.

by -
0 363
Holtsville Hal

Following the snowstorm that battered Brookhaven Town earlier this week, the 2021 virtual Groundhog Day ceremony had to be canceled. However, that didn’t stop Suffolk County’s most famous weatherman from revealing his prognostication. 

In the early morning hours of Feb. 2, Holtsville Hal awoke from his slumber, brushed the snow aside to emerge from his burrow and did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring for the snow-covered Town of Brookhaven.

According to tradition, if a groundhog sees its shadow on Groundhog Day, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; if not, spring should arrive early. 

“After this week’s storm, I’m sure we are all looking forward to an early spring and keeping our fingers crossed that our resident weatherman maintains his accuracy,” said Superintendent of Highways Daniel Losquadro. 

“Regardless, the Brookhaven Highway Department remains ready to handle whatever else Mother Nature decides to send our way.”

“While we were disappointed that we couldn’t hold our usual family-friendly event, due to COVID, and then had to cancel the virtual ceremony, we hope to see big crowds next year for Groundhog Day 2022,” Losquadro continued. 

by -
0 270
A Lesser Scaup

Audubon Winter Workshop

Four Harbors Audubon Society presents a winter workshop, Identifying Winter Waterfowl, via Zoom on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. Guest speaker Mike Cooper will discuss tips and techniques for observing and identifying local waterfowl including seabirds and puddle ducks. Free. Email [email protected] to register.

*This post has been updated to reflect the new workshop date.

by -
0 1389
Steven Matz hurls a pitch from the mound. Photo by Clayton Collier

The Toronto Blue Jays are getting much more than a 29-year-old lefty pitcher from the New York Mets.

In a trade in which the American League East team sent pitchers Josh Winckowski, Sean Reid-Foley and Yennsy Diaz to the Mets, the Blue Jays are adding Steven Matz, a hometown hero, who has stayed in touch with his roots, as well as a three-time nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award.

A graduate of Ward Melville High School, Matz continued to inspire his former coaches and students, remaining humble and approachable despite the glitz and glare of a baseball career that included a memorable start in the 2015 World Series against the Kansas City Royals.

“Every year, [Matz] will come back” to Ward Melville High School, said baseball coach Lou Petrucci. “He’s very accessible. If you ask him to do something, he does it.”

One day, Petrucci said of his former pitcher, Matz did bus duty at W. S. Mount Elementary School.

“He signs autographs and takes pictures with all the kids,” Petrucci said. “If he goes to Murphy [Junior High School], he signs autographs for hours.”

In 2015, in addition to making his pitching debut on the field for the Mets, Matz started Tru32, a charitable foundation designed to help first responders and those who serve in the NYPD, FDNY and US military. Matz wore the number 32 as a member of the Mets.

In April of last year, Matz donated $32,000 to first responders and hospitals in New York City in the midst of the spring surge in cases. Matz donated $12,000 to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and $10,000 to the New York Fire Department and Police Departments.

Through Tru32, Matz has provided 32 tickets during the season to first responders.

Matz also helped families caring for children who need medical attention through Angela’s House.

Tru32 hosts a bowling fundraiser called “Strikes for Steven,” that raises money for scholarships for the children of first responders who died in the line of duty.

Picked by his hometown team in the 2009 draft, Matz made his Major League Baseball debut June 28, 2015, against the Cincinnati Reds. He won the game 7-2, contributing three hits, including a two-run double.
Petrucci appreciated the storybook nature of Matz’s debut.

“He was playing in New York, in front of all his friends,” Petrucci said. “It was an unbelievable thing for Three Village.”

Petrucci expected that Mets ace Jacob deGrom, who contributed to the Tru32 scholarships, would be disappointed that he is no longer teammates with his close friend. When Matz married Taylor Cain in Alabama, deGrom celebrated at his two-day wedding. Mets left fielder Brandon Nimmo also attended the nuptials.

Petrucci said Cain, who is in a country band with her two brothers called the Cain Trio, can also hit a baseball.

When the Mets were scouting Matz, then general manager Omar Minaya noticed that Matz’s baseball skills weren’t confined to the pitcher’s mound.

“Lou, this kid can hit,” Petrucci recalls Minaya saying. “Of course, he can,” Petrucci thought. “He’s a baseball player.”

During six seasons with the Mets, Matz compiled a 31-41 record and had a 4.35 earned run average.

Matz battled through several injuries before and during his time with the Mets, each time returning to the sport he loved.

“He works hard every day,” Petrucci said. “He wants to compete.”

One of Petrucci’s favorite items from Matz’s career is the World Series ticket from 2015, when Matz pitched into the sixth inning, allowing seven hits and only two runs while exiting a game without a decision that the Mets wound up losing, 5-3.

The Ward Melville baseball coach knew that Matz had considerable talent when he saw him practicing at All Pro Sports Academy in Bellport.

“Steven, you’re going to get drafted,” Petrucci recalled telling his young pitcher. “He had unbelievable stuff.”

Petrucci called his friend Ed Blankmeyer, who coached St. John’s baseball for 23 years and is now the coach of the Brooklyn Cyclones, to talk about Matz.

Blankmeyer told Petrucci, “just don’t mess it up.” Petrucci said that was the “best advice he ever gave me.”

The high school coach said his former player taught him about the game of baseball and about “being humble. How many coaches” send players to the big leagues?

In addition to Matz, Ben Brown, who was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies and has played for three seasons in the minor leagues, and Anthony Kay, who is a pitcher on the Blue Jays, attended Ward Melville.

While they are both currently on the Blue Jays, Matz and Kay, who is four years younger than his new teammate, share a high school distinction.

After Matz pitched the last game of his senior year, freshman Kay toed the rubber in the first game of the next season for Ward Melville.

“They’re going to pitch back-to-back [for Toronto] one day,” Petrucci said. “I hope to go watch it.”

Petrucci appreciates that his former players have the opportunity to live out the childhood dream of so many on Long Island, carrying their hopes and aspirations north of the border.

Echoing Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of Devil Rays pitcher Jim Morris from the movie, “The Rookie,” Petrucci said, “He gets to play baseball every day. Whatever professional you know … who wouldn’t want to trade places with him?”

by -
0 1136
Coach Joe Spallina

The Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team began their quest for a national championship in earnest on Thursday.

The Seawolves held their first official practice of the spring semester inside the Stony Brook Indoor Training Complex.

Lofty expectations already have been heaped on the program.

Stony Brook enters the 2021 season ranked fifth in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Preseason Top 20 poll. And standout midfielder Ally Kennedy — the subject of soon-to-be aired features on Fox and ABC — landed on the cover of the January issue of US Lacrosse Magazine as the publication’s national Preseason Player of the Year.

“This is probably the realest year that it’s been to accomplish the dream of winning a national championship and getting to the Final Four — being the first Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team to do that,” Kennedy said. “I think it’s right at our fingertips this season.”
 
Kennedy highlights the deepest midfield of coach Joe Spallina‘s 10-season tenure at Stony Brook. That midfield group also includes USC graduate transfer and former Pac-12 first-team all-conference selection Kaeli Huff, 2019 first-team All-America East pick Siobhan Rafferty (who missed last season rehabbing an ACL tear after tallying 50 goals the previous year), Kira Accettella, Sarah Pulis, Charlotte Verhulst and freshman phenom Ellie Masera, who happens to be Huff’s cousin.

“What’s really cool about it is that everyone is constantly working and giving 110 percent,” Huff said. “It’s not like there’s a drop-off. Every single person is pushing each other and wants to get better.”

During Spallina’s now 10 seasons at the helm, Stony Brook has produced a 143-27 overall record, seven straight America East titles, and currently rides a 44-game winning streak against conference opponents.

Kennedy enters the season ranked second in program history in draw controls (242), fourth in goals (193), fifth in points (248), fifth in ground balls (133) and 10th in assists (55).

Fellow grad student Taryn Ohlmiller, an attacker, was ranked the No. 47 college lacrosse player, man or woman, by Inside Lacrosse in December. She ranks second in program history in career assists (138), third in points (305) and fifth in goals (167).

“Everybody really believes in this. We can make it to the national championship,” Huff said. “It’s really cool to have this common goal. Everybody has bought into that.”

by -
0 301
Artist Jessica Randall

The Reboli Center for Art & History in Stony Brook has named Jessica Randall as its Artisan of the Month for February.

“Jessica’s innovative and intricate work is extraordinary and beautiful,” said Lois Reboli, founder of the Reboli Center and wife of the late renowned artist, Joseph Reboli, for whom the center is named.

A graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Randall is an artist, silversmith and jewelry designer whose studio is located in Setauket. She has been designing and making original jewelry for over 20 years, and is inspired by found objects and nature, particularly the sea. Her pieces are designed to be worn everyday as wearable artwork.

A pair of earrings by Jessica Randall

According to Randall, “My jewelry is actually made of “Argentium Sterling Silver,” “Sterling Silver” and/or “24K Gold Vermeil.” This is an important distinction because “24K gold” implies solid gold, which this jewelry is not. “Vermeil” is a French word; it is an industry- standard term that specifically means a layer of 24K gold plating 2.5 microns thick, over a base metal of Sterling Silver. These pieces are made in Sterling Silver and then plated in 24K gold.”

Several years ago, Randall won “Best in Show” for “Mandala Bra,” which was featured in the “Bodacious Bras for a Cure” exhibition at The Wang Center at Stony Brook University. “I was honored to receive this award; but what I felt best about was being able to donate the proceeds from the sale of this piece to Stony Brook University Cancer Center,” said Randall.

“I am proud to be featured as the Artisan of the Month at the Reboli Center as I am an avid fan of Joe’s work! I am especially drawn to the element of mystery that seems to permeate his paintings. There is an aspect of the surreal in many of his beautifully lit, incredibly detailed images of daily life,” she said.

Randall’s winning “Mandala Bra” with cut shells, Mother of Pearl, semi- precious stones, hand-sewn onto bra

Visitors, fans and those in need of a Valentine’s gift will have an opportunity to meet Randall at The Reboli Center on Saturday, February 6, and Saturday, February 13, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for two special Valentine’s Day Pop up events! She will be more than happy to help you pick out something special for you or a loved one!

Lois Reboli, president of the Reboli Center, noted that, “The Center is adhering to New York State and Suffolk County coronavirus guidelines, which limits the number of attendees at one time and requires all visitors to wear a mask and socially distance. Please be assured that staff and volunteers will wear masks, and do continuous cleaning and sanitizing.”

Randall’s jewelry is for sale in the Reboli Center’s Design Shop. Located at 64 Main St., Stony Brook, admission to the Center is free, and hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m  Masks must be worn, and social distancing is required. For more information on the Artisan of the Month, please call the Reboli Center at 631-751-7707.

 

Prev1...237238239...260Next Page 238 of 260
TBR News Media is your local news and entertainment website.
We provide you with the latest breaking news and information for your community.
Contact us: [email protected]

Most Viewed

©