Landscapers help to maintain the land around chamber of commerce signs, including at Route 347 and Nicolls Road. Photo by Mallie Jane Kim
“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives,” reads the quotation on garbage cans around Stony Brook village.
Carl Bongiorno & Sons added birdhouses to the land parcels they maintain. Photo by Mallie Jane Kim
The placement of the quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, couldn’t be clearer: If you are proud of where you live, help keep it clean.
Green Machine Landscaping in Stony Brook and Carl Bongiorno & Sons, an East Setauket landscape business, are volunteering to do just that, in conjunction with the Three Village Chamber of Commerce, for the main entrances to the community.
Jurisdiction over Long Island roadsides gets complicated, as some roads are the responsibility of the state, some of the county and others of the towns, so it’s easy for overgrowth to fall through the bureaucratic cracks.
“It gets to be a forgotten sister, and it needs somebody to take care of it,” said Bob Brown, a chamber board member.
According to Brown, the chamber’s arrangement with Carl Bongiorno & Sons started shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when Bongiorno Sr. approached TVCC wanting to do something to contribute to his community that was still reeling from the terrorist attacks in New York City. Starting with the land around chamber signs on Route 347, at both Nicolls and Old Town roads, his firm added retaining walls, planters and even birdhouses handcrafted by Bongiorno Sr. himself.
“We really take pride in making them nice,” said Carl Bongiorno Jr., who has maintained the firm’s relationship with the chamber. “Having birds chirping and living there, just enhances those signs and those entrances to the community even more.”
Bongiorno Jr. said his landscaping business also created a retaining wall with planting beds where Belle Mead Road meets Upper Sheep Pasture Road at the request of the chamber.
“A lot of people were traveling both ways along that stretch,” Bongiorno Jr. said. “At the time it was really run down, and we wanted to do something to clean up and brighten up that corner a little bit.”
Now, Brown said, the area near the chamber’s third sign, at Nicolls Road and Route 25A, is the “forgotten sister” about to receive some attention. For that, Green Machine Landscaping has stepped up to help.
According to owner Jason Witover, Green Machine is planning to clean and beautify the area, amid the busy early summer landscaping season.
Witover, a native Three Villager, said he is happy to help. “We take pride in the community, and they’ve done a lot for us,” he said. “Anything I can give back to the community that’s helped me personally, and where I have my business as well, it’s my honor to do so.”
For his part, Brown sees the arrangement as directly related to the chamber’s core mission. “The goal of the chamber was to bring people together and use the force of all those people to make a better community,” he said. “I think we’ve been reasonably successful in doing that.”
Local citizen chips in
This kind of benevolence is not limited to professional landscapers in the community. The Three Village Civic Association recently recognized photographer Michael Rosengard of East Setauket for taking it upon himself to beautify an area nobody was taking care of.
Civic association president Charles Tramontana told attendees at a recent meeting that one weekend he was driving past Patriots Hollow State Forest on 25A when he noticed Rosengard “working like a dog” with tools to clear the sidewalk of overgrown vegetation, leaves and litter. Tramontana couldn’t resist pulling over to say “thank you.” Rosengard told him, “You know what? It’s good exercise.”
Tramontana pointed out that since it’s not always clear which agency has jurisdiction to maintain areas like that sidewalk, he believes such behavior deserves recognition.
Maureen Manyasa-Zangrillo near the hole where children used to fetch drinking water before a well project.. Photo from Manyasa-Zangrillo
As a child in Kenya, Maureen Nabwire Manyasa-Zangrillo, now 35, loved learning about the world, but never dreamed she’d wind up living in the United States more than 7,000 miles away.
Maureen Nabwire Manyasa-Zangrillo with her husband, Joey. Photo from Manyasa-Zangrillo
She lived several different lifestyles moving around Kenya as a child, she said, following her father’s developing career as an agricultural scientist to cities and villages and back again, fostering her love of new places and different kinds of people. As she grew up, so did that passion, expanding outward from her region and continent to encompass the entire world atlas she loved to study.
So when a serendipitous meeting over a charity project gave her a chance to travel to the other side of the world to make a new life on the North Shore of Long Island, she was ready. Now married to Joey Zangrillo, owner of Joey Z’s Restaurant in Port Jefferson, she is in the perfect setting to keep learning. “My love for geography and reading maps really helps when I meet people,” she said. “I have a clue about almost every corner of the globe.”
Growing up in Kenya
Before she even started primary school, Manyasa-Zangrillo had lived in Nakuru, the fourth largest urban area in the nation; her family’s village in Busia near the Ugandan border; a remote agricultural field station outside of Kenya’s capital Nairobi; and finally the thriving urban capital itself.
When it was time to start school, Manyasa-Zangrillo’s parents moved her and her younger sisters back to the quieter Busia, where they stayed with an aunt in a circular mud hut built in the traditional manner of their ethnic group, the Luhya tribe, while her father started the long process of coordinating construction of a modern brick house.
It was common in Kenya for breadwinners to work in the cities but keep their families back home in the villages, and such was the case for Manyasa-Zangrillo’s father. So building the house was slow progress over the next four or five years, with her father coordinating the work whenever he could make time to be home from Nairobi. Her mother, a primary school teacher, was gone awhile also to advance her training at teachers college.
Both parents made sure to stay connected to the girls. The father would send letters and packages to his daughters through the local bus company’s courier service, and — since landlines were rare — would schedule times to talk. Manyasa-Zangrillo remembered friends with landline telephones in their offices coming to tell the family what time to wait at the local payphone booth. She and her sisters would crowd around. “You’d find all of us at the booth — he’d talk to us turn by turn,” she said. “That’s how we found ways to connect.” Once the house was finished, the family finally had a landline of their own.
At age 10, Manyasa-Zangrillo’s lifestyle changed yet again, when she went to a Catholic boarding school, run by a very strict nun. “She was tough on us,” Manyasa-Zangrillo said, recalling that after parents visited, the staff would check the students to make sure they weren’t bringing in any outside food, drinks or treats.
Amid the rigid schedule and lack of comfort food, Manyasa-Zangrillo discovered bright spots: literature and geography. The curriculum included many storybooks, in both English and Swahili. For Manyasa-Zangrillo, reading was a beautiful escape. “It was a way of distracting myself from all the craziness and strictness that was going around,” she said.
Her beloved geography also gave her mind space to travel. “They would teach us about different areas — you learn about the geography, the weather of all these places, the planting, cultivation, commerce structures and all those things,” she said. “I was just curious about places.”
As she was growing up, she saw her parents rise in their education and careers. Her father obtained his university degree, a master’s and eventually a doctorate in plant breeding for arid and semi-arid regions, and her mother earned a bachelor’s in special education. “I’d see how strong willed they are,” the daughter said. “It was really motivating to see.”
Manyasa-Zangrillo, right, with her parents and a cousin in Kenya. Photo from Manyasa-Zangrillo
This motivation helped Manyasa-Zangrillo succeed in her own education, earning a government scholarship to university herself. She struggled, though, to know what to study. In the end, she settled on law. “I wasn’t crazy about it,” she said, remembering she looked into other options like English linguistics, but her dad was even less crazy about that idea. “You have good grades — a top performance,” he told her, encouraging her to choose a major he saw as more serious.
After completing her education, she was admitted to the Kenyan bar and landed a job at the firm where she had carried out her required internship. She found ways to enjoy it. Serving documents or filing petitions, for example, took her all around the region. “I liked it because I love traveling, and I love seeing and exploring,” she said. “It was fulfilling my adventurous self because I’m going to new towns, new places.”
Charitable deeds
Another thing that helped fulfill her curiosity were opportunities to serve. Along with her sisters and other neighbors in Nairobi, where her family had relocated, Manyasa-Zangrillo had started a group called Youth for Change as a means to serve underprivileged children. So when her close friend from law school, Annette Kawira, invited her to volunteer at Bethsaida Community Foundation’s home for orphans, vulnerable children and children who had been living on the streets, she was happy to go along.
By 2016, Kawira had moved to the United States and found herself, of all places, in Joey Zangrillo’s Port Jefferson restaurant, then called Z Pita. Zangrillo had started a nonprofit organization and apparel company promoting racial reconciliation, and he was also donating 10% of his profits to charity. When Kawira saw a sign about the restaurant owner’s philanthropy, she remembered the Bethsaida orphanage and made a fast friendship and partnership with Zangrillo.
As the two organized fundraising on Long Island, Manyasa-Zangrillo served as the woman on the ground in Kenya, liaising between them and the children’s home. Logistical texts and FaceTime interactions between her and Zangrillo blossomed into friendship — she enjoyed his sense of humor — then took on a flirtatious air. Interest sparked.
By the time he planned to take a trip to Kenya to visit Bethsaida and meet the children in 2017, he was also looking forward to meeting her. She remembered being nervous about what he would be like in person, but after she opened her door to him, she said, “he just busted in with so much energy, and I was like, OK, we’re going to get along.”
For his part, Zangrillo was drawn to her compassion. “What made me fall in love with my wife is when I saw the love in her eyes for the children in the orphanage,” he said. “That second, I knew.”
To Long Island and marriage
The trip was a success and plans to install a well at the orphanage moved forward, as did plans for Manyasa-Zangrillo to visit Long Island, which she did that fall. Joey Zangrillo sent Kawira and another Kenyan friend in a limo to pick her up from the airport, and she was charmed. Manhattan charmed her, too — it was larger than life, just like the movies. She even sat in the audience at “The Daily Show” to see the comic Trevor Noah she’d watched back in Africa.
Manyasa-Zangrillo found the Port Jefferson community and Zangrillo’s friends welcoming and warm, but the weather less so. “The drastic hot to cold — I felt like my ears were going to fall off,” she said.
The weather wasn’t enough to keep her away. After a couple months back in the more temperate climate of Kenya, she kept thinking about New York, Zangrillo and the possibilities. “In my legal profession, I was wallowing a bit,” she said. “Am I going to do this for the rest of my life, yet I’m feeling like this is not what I really wanted to do.”
So she took a risk and came back in early 2018, still unsure what the future would hold. Zangrillo was more certain. “He was like, ‘You know what? I would like you to stay.’”
They married that summer. “There’s no need to overthink something that is good,” she said of the quick timeline, adding that where immigration law is involved, “you date through the marriage because you don’t have a long courtship.”
She found her transition to New York easy, partly because of Kawira and other Kenyan connections, but also because of her new husband. He’d told so many people about her and about the orphanage that restaurantgoers and friends were thrilled to meet her, and to learn more about her. “It’s so refreshing because when I walk in, people say, ‘You must be Maureen,’” she said. “Through the restaurant, I’m meeting people every day.”
For Zangrillo, having her in town is “a godsend,” he said. “It changed my life — I’m a happy man, with a happy life.”
Careerwise, the future is still open for Manyasa-Zangrillo. She has taken a paralegal class and is studying the American legal system in case she wants to return to her original career path. She helps at the restaurant and has introduced a top-selling menu item — the lemon potatoes. The couple are continuing their charity work, as well, with hopes to install a school library for students in a Nairobi slum settlement.
Now living in Setauket, Manyasa-Zangrillo has come to appreciate the North Shore’s feel and location, not too close and not too far from the city. “My life dream when I was younger was just to be somewhere that is full of nature and very serene, and the environment is cool,” she said. “I’d say I got it here.”
Participants in the 2022 Pride Month Celebration Picnic at Hoyt Farm hosted by the Smithtown Anti-Bias Task Force. Photo from Town of Smithtown
By Sabrina Artusa
The Smithtown Anti-Bias Task Force, a team of town-board-appointed volunteers, endeavors to decrease discrimination by focusing on programs that promote inclusivity.
The task force was created as a town agency in May 1994 but only resumed activity in 2019. After a brief hiatus in 2020, the task force commenced in-person events like educational programs at the Smithtown library, anti-bias multimedia galleries and a Pride Month picnic, the second of which will take place Monday, June 26.
Programs are organized around demographics that would most profit from them. By examining hate crime statistics given to them by the Suffolk County Hate Crime Unit, the task force is able to direct its resources accordingly. Chair member and volunteer Maria LaMalfa said they use the statistics to “reach people where they are.”
“We look at what’s prevalent and we try to bring an education to remediate,” LaMalfa said. Identification of bias is a necessary first step in creating impactful programs. Last month, after identifying Asian racism as an issue, the task force worked with Smithtown Library to develop an educational workshop about Chinese calligraphy and Indonesian culture.
The task force honors differences of religion, ability and age as well. In response to antisemitism, they held a series of Holocaust remembrance programs and discussions. In 2022, the Suffolk County Police Department recorded antisemitism as one of the most frequent motivations for Suffolk County hate crimes in 2022. Incidents of discrimination are what the task force strives against, and according to LaMalfa, education could be the key to eradicating them.
“The hate crime police always, always tell us that education is the best way to get rid of these incidents,” LaMalfa said. This sentiment is reflected in their programs, which largely center around educating the public about commonly discriminated against communities.
“People tend to fear what they don’t know or understand,” LaMalfa added. “Education is the ABTF’s primary goal.”
The task force was initially developed after a series of hate crimes in Commack in 1994. In 2019, the town decided to revive the agency. Lynne Nowick, councilwoman and the ABTF’s town board liaison, was a leading figure in bringing back the ABTF. She said she felt bias “was becoming more common.” She and board members decided it was time to bring it back. “There is no such thing as a town without bias,” Nowick said.
“People that were affected should have someone to go to,” Nowick added. The task force doesn’t replace the police department; “Their jobs are to tell them look, there are places to go, people to talk to.”
The task force isn’t involved in investigating hate crimes, or bringing perpetrators to justice.
In addition to preventative programs through education, the task force also works on projects that provide support for communities that need it. The Pride Month picnic on June 26 will give a space for Smithtown residents to celebrate the LGBTQ community.
Linda Rose, Smithtown resident and member of the Suffolk County LGBTQ Advisory Board, appreciates the contributions of the task force. In the past, she has been unhappy with how the town addressed LGBTQ issues and said that town members insist upon inclusivity “but don’t walk the walk.”
Rose aspires for a Smithtown that is “inclusive to all children, not just some.” The task force is what Rose said Smithtown needs.
Currently, the town board is intending to amend the law regarding the ABTF, Chapter 43 of the Smithtown Town Code. The amendment will change the name of the agency to Town of Smithtown Unity Counsel. Other modifications include term limits for volunteers and chairpersons and more specifications to the group’s purpose and duties.
Daisy, the mommy mallard protects her ducklings in a flowerpot at Bryant Funeral Home in East Setauket. Photo from Bryant Funeral Home
By Carole Ganzenmuller
At Bryant Funeral Home in East Setauket, we work hard caring for families. This past May we were not caring for a family but for a beautiful female mallard duck that became part of the Bryant family.
The duck family takes off for new adventures. Photo from Bryant Funeral Home
One morning in May, the staff came in the back door, where there is a large flowerpot and noticed a hole had been dug in the dirt; but we did not give it a second thought. The next day we noticed a duck sitting in the pot. She blended in so well with flowers that we hardly noticed her. She was there for a few days. Then one day she stood up and lo and behold there was one egg in this hole she had made a nest. Then there were three eggs, then finally six eggs. We were excited and yet nervous for the mommy mallard; we named her “Daisy.”
We did our research and read not to touch or move the eggs, what mallard ducks eat and how long before the eggs would hatch. Daisy loved the fruit and seeds we fed her; but she was always cautious if people came too close. To try to keep her protected we put a sign near the pot so families, florists and delivery companies would try to be considerate and not startle her and they would not be startled. Anyone who saw her became so invested in her: “Oh, she is still here?”
In addition, our families would all ask about Daisy. We even took the time to make a little homemade pond just in case Daisy and her soon-to-be ducklings needed a close water spot to make home.
Bryant Funeral Home is happy to say exactly 30 days after Daisy deposited her eggs, all six little ducklings were born. We were happy yet sad when Daisy and her sweet six little ducklings hopped out of the pot and went off for their new adventures as a family. We at Bryant Funeral Home were so proud to be part of the whole experience with such a happy ending.
Carole Ganzenmuller is a funeral assistant with Bryant Funeral Home.
An outdoor cooking oil container, above. Photo from Wikimedia Commons
By Aidan Johnson
Two men were arrested on June 5 by Suffolk County police for stealing cooking oil from three restaurants in the Patchogue-Medford area.
While the idea of people stealing used cooking oil may garner some confused looks and light chuckles, the ramifications of the crime are a lot bigger than expected.
Dimitris Assanis, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, spoke about the greater use of cooking oil.
“There’s these cascading layers of what you can use oil products for, so in the cooking oil side, these are basically oil that comes from the fryers. That’s probably the largest use,” Assanis said.
Depending on the quality and type of oil, along with the price point of the restaurant, according to Assanis, factor in how often the oil is changed. More expensive restaurants may change their oil daily or every few days, while a mid- to lower-tier restaurant may change its oil around once every week or two.
There’s also value in converting this oil into fuel oil by turning it into biodiesel, a net-zero or low-carbon fuel that is very similar to diesel. If done in a careful manner, the oil can be turned into high-quality biodiesel that can then be used as home heating oil or can be put in a car, Assanis said.
In the past, restaurants would have to pay to dispose of their used oil. However, restaurants are able to have it disposed for free or even get paid for their used oil, especially since there’s a secondary use for it.
“The issue is now if someone is going in and stealing their oil, they were using that additional revenue probably to discount some of the cost of running the restaurant,” Assanis said. “And usually that cost that’s lost there gets passed on to the customer because they can’t offset it.”
Jeff Yasinski is co-owner of D&W Alternative Energy, a New Jersey company that collects and recycles used cooking oil from restaurants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. For over a decade, D&W has had to struggle with cooking oil theft. Currently, Yasinski estimates that 30-35% of their cooking oil is being stolen per week.
Even with the outdoor cooking oil containers that restaurants use becoming more secure, thieves still find ways to steal it, usually with the help of oxyacetylene torches and angle grinders that leave the containers destroyed.
“We’ve personally reached out to the FBI, the State Commission of Investigation, pretty much every local police department in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania area,” Yasinski said. “Occasionally they’ll catch one little cargo van with two guys in it, but you got to cut the head off the snake, not the [tail],” he added.
The theft is fueled by the people who are willing to buy the stolen used oil, and according to Yasinski, it is no secret who they are.
“There’s three big outfits in New Jersey that [are] buying a lot of stolen oil, and pretty much all of that stolen oil that’s aggregated at those three places then gets sold on through one specific trading house,” Yasinski explained.
“That one specific trading house supplies one of the very biggest renewable diesel producers in the world, and they know it. Everybody down the chain knows it. It’s frustrating,” he further elaborated.
Yasinski suggests that restaurants move the oil containers inside, where thieves are less likely to steal it. He also recommends familiarizing yourself with the service provider.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a restaurant trying to pick up a new account, and they thought that they were being serviced by whoever’s container was out there, but in reality, their oil has just been stolen over and over and over again,” he said.
“And the company who dropped that container five years ago hasn’t been there in five years, because every time they go there, there’s no oil there,” Yasinski added.
It’s important to make sure that the service provider being used is legitimate by checking information such as the Department of Transportation numbers on the truck. Otherwise, instead of just the oil being taken, your money can be going along with it.
Executing a Last Will and Testament with an attorney is an important step in deciding and planning your legacy. However, this does not mean that all is solved upon one’s death. It is important that the client and future executor understands the process of probate and the necessary requirements of the court system.
Probate is the legal procedure by which your assets pass upon your death. When a person dies with a will, the nominated executor must file a probate petition with the Surrogate’s Court in the county in which the decedent lived. This is necessary to be officially appointed by the court so that the executor can distribute property or assets left by the decedent.
First, the executor files the original will, a certified copy of the death certificate, and the probate petition in Surrogate’s Court. Then, notice needs to be given to the decedent’s next-of-kin who would have inherited had there not been a will. The next of kin will either sign waivers and consents in agreement or issue a citation to appear in court to have the opportunity to object to the will. Often a family tree affidavit needs to be filed by an independent person who knows the family history.
After jurisdiction is complete and any issues with the will addressed, the Surrogate’s Court will issue a decree granting probate. The judge issues Letters Testamentary giving the executor authority to act. These Letters Testamentary serves as the physical paperwork for the executor to carry out distributions of the estate.
When a person dies without a will (intestate), it is necessary to file an Administration Petition with the Surrogate’s Court. Here, a close relative of the decedent applies to become the decedent’s Administrator. The assets pass to blood relatives according to statute. The Court will then issue Letters of Administration appointing them Administrator. As with a probate proceeding, all interested parties must be given notice and either sign a waiver or served with a citation issued by the court. Sometimes a kinship hearing is necessary to prove relation to the decedent.
As you can imagine, the probate process can be costly and time consuming in even the simplest cases. Probate proceedings can drag on for years when distant relatives cannot be located or a relative decides to contest the will. Contested wills can result in litigation proceedings and become draining mentally and financially for those involved. The good news is that probate can be avoided through the use of beneficiary designations and trusts.
Assets held jointly with rights of survivorship pass automatically to the surviving owner upon death. This is common in the case of spouses. Likewise, assets with designated beneficiaries pass to the designated beneficiaries, avoiding probate. Examples of jointly held assets include joint bank accounts and real property owned by spouses. Common assets with designated beneficiaries include retirement accounts and life insurance policies. If you have not named a beneficiary on an account that allows it, these assets must go through probate. Of course, not every type of asset allows a beneficiary designation.
Another way to avoid probate is by creating a living trust. While there are many different types of living trusts, most can hold assets such as bank accounts, real estate, businesses, and personal belongings. For example, a revocable living trust is primarily used to avoid probate. You, as the grantor, would be both the trustee and beneficiary during your lifetime. You would add a successor trustee to take over if you became incapacitated and upon your death. This successor trustee can seamlessly take over management of the trust property and no court proceedings are necessary.
Keep in mind, any assets owned by a revocable or irrevocable trust will simply pass according to the terms of the trust, free from court interference. Certain trusts also allow a trustee to control assets if one becomes incapacitated.
One size does not fit all when it comes to trust planning. It is important to discuss the best option for you and your loved one with an attorney who specializes in this area of the law and can explain the pros and cons of trusts, probate and more.
Nancy Burner, Esq. is the founder and managing partner at Burner Law Group, P.C. with offices located in East Setauket, Westhampton Beach, New York City and East Hampton.
One winter day, I was on my way to deliver The Brooklyn Eagle. It was the early 1950s, when I lived in Brooklyn.
I was riding my homemade bike. It was only a green frame and tires. It had no chain guard, no fenders, no kickstand and no rubber hand grips. It had only one pedal. It was all that I could afford. I remember my grandmother gave me a shot of homemade dandelion wine to keep me warm.
When I reached the corner of my block with my canvas bag tied to my handlebars, I saw Zeke with his friends. He was the chief of the Indian motorcycle gang. They were headed my way.
So I yelled out, “Hi, Zeke,” and his friends burst out laughing. Zeke then came over to me, put his arm around me and said, “This is my good friend, and anyone who messes with him messes with me.” I was in my glory.
Zeke was my idol. He was a born leader, a philosopher-king, a warrior-poet and chose his battles wisely. He always wore jeans, a jean jacket, a garrison belt and motorcycle boots. Zeke was bold, wise, honest, kind and humble. He had the right swagger and governed with humility.
When I was a bit older — in the late 1950s — I was able to buy myself a Benelli motorcycle with money I had saved up. I wore jeans, a jean jacket, a garrison belt and motorcycle boots.
I don’t know what happened to Zeke, but he was special. I bet he was one of the best Ringolevio players in all of Brooklyn (“The game of life you play for keeps.”).
Whenever I’m in a jam and don’t know what to do, I ask myself: “What would Zeke have done?” He was my true friend and mentor.
An off-duty Suffolk County Police Department Sixth Precinct police officer and two good Samaritans pulled two people out of a vehicle that caught fire following a motor vehicle crash in Farmingville on June 24.
Maribel Ramirez was driving a 2014 Honda northbound on County Road 83, near South Bicycle Path, when the vehicle struck a guard rail and overturned at approximately 5:20 a.m. Off-duty Sixth Precinct police officer Kevin Farina, who was on his way to work, observed the overturned vehicle and stopped to assist. The vehicle caught fire as Officer Farina and two good Samaritans pulled Maribel Ramirez, 45, of Coram, and her passenger, Mario Ramirez, 41, of Coram, out of the vehicle. Both victims were uninjured.
The Montoyo Rocks’ album cover. Image from Burton Rocks
When sports agent Burton Rocks got the idea to add Latin rhythms to a traditional baseball song, he called his friend and client Charlie Montoyo, bench coach for the Chicago White Sox.
Burton and Marlene Rocks at the studio. Photo from Burton Rocks
Rocks said he thought it would be interesting to record “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” using congas, which Montoyo plays in his spare time. Rocks said he didn’t think anyone had ever recorded such a version of the classic.
“I said, ‘Charlie, why don’t we do a brand new instrumental, like our own walk-up music, and it will be called ‘El Ritmo de Béisbol,’ and then why don’t we do a conga version of ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ and keep the English lyrics,” Rocks said.
Montoyo loved the idea. After the bench coach was on board, Rocks asked his friend, professional musician TD William, to join them on the project. The sports agent also wanted the woman who inspired his love for Latin music to collaborate with them — his mother Marlene Rocks.
The group decided to call themselves Montoyo Rocks, and soon the Stony Brook residents and William were in a studio in Massachusetts working on the songs. Montoyo, from his Arizona home, recorded his instrumental parts on his phone.
Joining in on Montoyo’s conga playing, Burton Rocks plays the bongos and cowbells on “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’’ also contributing vocals while his mother sings during the chorus. William was lead vocalist and played the guitar, bass and drums.
During the instrumental single, with Montoyo on congas once again, Burton Rocks plays cowbells with William on cajon and percussion and Marlene Rocks on shakers.
The son said he has loved music since he was younger and remembers his mother playing piano. Burton said he always enjoyed Latin music such as salsa and samba, thanks to his mother.
“It’s one of my favorite genres of music,” he said.
Marlene Rocks, who was a Spanish teacher in New York City and a substitute teacher in Three Village school district, began appreciating Spanish-language music while visiting family in Mexico and studying in the country. The mother said she was glad she passed on the appreciation of the genre to her son. Growing up she would listen to Latin music artists such as ranchera singer and actor Pedro Infante and later would play the records as well as show her son bilingual children’s shows.
“Burton, when he was little, I had him watch ‘Villa Alegre’ and ‘Carrascolendas’ so that he would get that Spanish and Latin flavor,” she said.
Marlene Rocks added it was nice that she was asked to join in with the Montoyo Rocks group.
“It was a thrill for somebody in my age group to play the shakers to Latin music that I had grown up listening to, but this was an original, so I really had a good time with it.”
Burton Rocks was happy she agreed to join them in the recording studio and hopes others will let their interests inspire them to create music.
“I think music is one of the universal languages of love,” he said. “You can spread a lot of love in this world through music.”
The Montoyo Rocks singles are available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube.
Mailbox fishing and check washing, two pernicious crime phenomena, are on the rise.
The United States Postal Inspection Service defines check washing as a scam involving “changing the payee names and often the dollar amounts on checks and fraudulently depositing them.” Often, thieves steal the checks from mailboxes, removing the ink using commonplace chemical agents.
Chelsea Binns, assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, described check washing as an “old school fraud” that is ascending in popularity.
“It is actually the second most common form of consumer fraud right now,” trailing only identity theft, she told TBR News Media in a phone interview.
Carrying out mail theft is relatively simple, Binns noted. Mailbox fishers commonly send a “line” into a post box, often with a sticky end.
“Similar to catching a fish, they’re using these devices and techniques to catch the check out of the mail,” she said.
After stealing the check, criminals can use commonplace chemical agents, such as nail polish remover, to “wash” the stolen checks, removing and changing the payee and amount to suit their preferences. Fraudsters can either cash the check themselves or sell it online in the underground market.
While check fraud is a longstanding practice, the crime has spiked following the COVID-19 pandemic. A February report by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network indicates mail theft complaints rose 161% between March 2020 and February 2021 compared to the same period over the previous year.
While there have been cases of U.S. postal service employees committing fraud, the report suggested the rise has been driven by non-USPS employees — ranging from rogue individuals to organized criminal operations — carrying out mail thefts.
David Shapiro, a distinguished lecturer at John Jay College, is a fraud risk and financial crimes specialist. Reached by phone, he detailed why these crimes are multiplying regionally and nationally, noting the relative ease with which one can become a check fraudster.
“It’s a low-tech fraud, so it makes it available to so many people,” he said. “Granted, it can get higher tech when you want to expand the network and make it more profitable for organized criminals … but you can enter this business basically as a solo practitioner.”
Compounding this problem is the crime’s profitability, which he indicates has increased considerably due to broader financial trends.
“The number of checks in circulation is way down, but the average value of the checks is way up,” he said. “Now you’re fishing, but you’re not fishing for minnows. You’re fishing for flounders, making it more appealing to the low-tech street thief.”
While much of the national discourse around these crimes centers around security breaches within the postal delivery system, Shapiro regarded the problem primarily as a payment system problem.
“It’s being driven by the banks because the banks are ultimately liable for this kind of thing,” he said. “The customer is not out [of pocket], generally. The fraudster gets away, so basically it’s a bank liability.”
Given the scale and reach of the crime, these losses can compound astronomically. Earlier this year, Randy Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South, reported that check washing now accounts for more than $815 million per year in losses to individuals, businesses and financial institutions.
In the face of these challenges, there are tangible ways to protect oneself from mailbox fishing and check washing. Binns advises using a black-ink gel pen when writing out checks.
“That sinks into the check’s fibers, and it can’t be washed,” she said.
The assistant professor also advised against using one’s residential mailbox for check deliveries, and recommended mail with issued checks be taken directly to the post office and handed to a postal worker. She said mailboxes, even those placed outside the post office, are at risk of fishing.
She lastly advised consumers, particularly elders, to explore transitioning to online payment systems, removing the risks associated with paper checks altogether.
“Unfortunately, it’s time for us to change our habits to try to combat this,” Binns concluded.
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