Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Fourth Squad detectives are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate two men who allegedly used stolen credit cards at Commack stores in June.
A woman reported credit cards were stolen from a 2023 Hyundai parked in a parking lot on Landing Avenue in Smithtown on June 12 at 5:12 p.m. The credit cards were used by two men that same day at Target, located at 98 Veterans Memorial Highway in Commack, and Walmart, located at 85 Crooked Hill Road in Commack.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, utilizing a mobile app which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play by searching P3 Tips, or online at www.P3Tips.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct Crime Section officers are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate two people who allegedly stole merchandise from a Centereach store in June.
A man and woman allegedly stole approximately $415 worth of clothing from Walmart, located at 161 Centereach Mall, on June 29.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, utilizing a mobile app which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play by searching P3 Tips, or online at www.P3Tips.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.
Suffolk County Police First Squad detectives have arrested a Shirley man for stabbing and critically injuring an acquaintance during an altercation at an East Farmingdale amusement park on July 7.
Two men who are known to each other were involved in a dispute involving several people at Adventureland Amusement Park, located at 2245 Broadhollow Road, when Daniel Tomasky stabbed James Burns in the abdomen with a knife at approximately 4:50 p.m. There was at least one child present at the time of the altercation.
Burns, 47, of Edgewater, Florida, was transported to an area hospital where he is in critical condition. Tomasky, 42, of Helene Ave., Shirley was charged with Assault 1st Degree, Assault 2nd Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon 3rd Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon 4th Degree, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He is being held overnight at the Third Precinct and will be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on July 8.
Detectives are asking anyone with information on this incident to contact First Squad detectives at
631-854-8152.
Newfield’s Jaysiah Deliat drives the lane in summer league basketball action against Riverhead. Photo by Bill Landon
Newfield senior Josh Hayes banks two for the Wolverines. Photo by Bill Landon
The Newfield Wolverines opened their summer league basketball season with a win over Riverhead. Photo by Bill Landon
The Newfield Wolverines opened their summer league basketball season with a win over Riverhead. Photo by Bill Landon
The Newfield Wolverines opened their summer league basketball season with a win over Riverhead. Photo by Bill Landon
Newfield senior Michael Favaloro fights his way to the rim for the Wolverines. Photo by Bill Landon
By Bill Landon
‘The Town of Brookhaven launched its summer league boys basketball season when the Newfield Wolverines took on the Blue Waves of Riverhead Thursday, June 27, at the Sachem East High School gymnasium. This season’s large school competition consists of 14 teams stretching along the North Shore from Half Hollow Hills West to Riverhead in a nine-game season that will conclude Aug. 1.
The Wolverines controlled the tempo of the game from the opening tipoff, keeping Riverhead off balance to win the game 57-40.
Newfield returns to the Sachem East High School gym Tuesday, July 9, when the team will face Ward Melville. Game time is slated for 8 p.m.
Suffolk County Legislature voted 15-2 Tuesday, June 25, to approve I.R. 1461 which will extend and revise the Suffolk County Drinking Water Protection Program. County Executive Ed Romaine (R) is expected to sign the measure into law July 8 for the mandatory referendum to be added to the November ballot.
This program, if passed via referendum, will establish the new Water Quality Restoration Fund supported by an additional sales and use tax of 1/8%. It is estimated the increase in sales tax collections will fund about $4 billion over 50 years to implement the county’s Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan.
In June and July 2023, a 10-7 vote along party lines doomed the measure from reaching that November’s ballot.
The 1.5 million people of Suffolk County currently rely on more than 380,000 cesspools and wastewater systems, including over 209,000 systems located in environmentally sensitive areas. This decentralized infrastructure has been a significant cause of nitrogen pollution across the county. In both surface-level and underground bodies of water, this nitrogen pollution causes harmful algae blooms, which can release toxins into fish, destroy ecosystems by consuming excessive oxygen in the water and cause a variety of conditions in exposed humans.
Passage of the referendum has economic as well as health benefits. Creating and maintaining new wastewater infrastructure will create a number of well-paying jobs for the county government. Additionally, the risks posed to businesses reliant on Suffolk County water cannot be understated, as well as the threats to beaches across Long Island.
The Water Quality Restoration Fund can be used for water quality improvement, such as enhancing and maintaining existing sewerage facilities, consolidating sewer districts and replacing and installing wastewater treatment systems in areas where sewers cannot be installed.
The language of the referendum itself is straightforward: “A yes vote ensures county funding to 2060 for clean water projects, improvements in drinking water, bays and harbors, and a no vote continues water quality degradation.”
Romaine claimed that passage of the referendum will be vital to fund sewer constructions, especially in less developed areas of the county, and the broad swaths of land with only cesspools installed. Romaine said that he “cannot emphasize enough the importance of this referendum” to address water contaminants.
Romaine was also the primary sponsor of the bill, which was co-sponsored by Legislators James Mazzarella (R-Mastic) and Ann Welker (D-Southampton).
Legislator Stephanie Bontempi (R-Centerport), who voted for the bill, claimed in a statement that while the bill gives the county the authority to establish longer-term funding for wastewater improvement projects, it also allows the county to apply for “much-needed” matching grant funding from the New York State and federal governments.
The final decision will rest in the hands of Suffolk County voters on Nov. 5.
One of over a dozen derelict buildings that have been removed from the Lawrence Aviation Superfund site in Port Jefferson Station. File photo.
By Mallie Jane Kim
Plans to transform the Lawrence Aviation Superfund site in Port Jefferson Station hit a slowdown this week as a key contract deadline passed. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority requested to extend its June 30 closing deadline to Dec. 31, in a letter addressed to the Suffolk County Landbank Corporation, which is managing the property.
All other terms of the contract, a $10 purchase of land suitable for building a railyard, should remain in effect, according to the letter.
“The MTA’s decision to delay the closing date is understandable given all of the pressing issues that MTA leadership is dealing with right now,” said Landbank board member Peter Scully. “The most important thing is that the community’s long-term vision for the future use of the Lawrence Aviation site is still alive.”
The delay may be related to MTA’s current focus on fallout surrounding Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) June 5 decision to pause congestion pricing for cars entering New York City’s central business district, which had been scheduled to begin at midnight June 30. That plan had been in the works for nearly two decades, but Hochul cited the currently difficult economic conditions as a reason to wait. She has said she did not want to add a financial burden to New Yorkers already struggling with soaring prices of groceries and utilities.
But the pause threw MTA into funding uncertainty. Funding from congestion pricing was designated to go toward critical improvements to subways, buses and rails, according to a congestion pricing information page on the MTA website. Now, $16.5 billion in projects will be deferred, and some projects already in progress have had to be stopped, MTA board members announced at a June 26 meeting.
For advocates of cleaner-energy rail, reserving the Lawrence Aviation space is an opportunity to allow for infrastructure that can make possible future upgrades to the Port Jefferson Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. That line currently runs on diesel.
“Acquiring this property is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Three Village Community Trust President Herb Mones, referring to the fact that it is unusual to find an appropriately-sized space available on Long Island for a railyard. “For MTA not to pursue it full throttle would be really unfortunate.”
The contract previously hinged on an easement agreement with New York’s Department of Transportation that would allow a future railyard to cross a straight line of DOT property that currently hosts the Setauket-Port Jefferson Station Greenway trail. In the proposed site plan, the Greenway trail would be adjusted to loop around a railyard once MTA decided to build one — disturbing the flow of any potential highway there.
There was no word whether those negotiations had yet been ironed out.
Mones, whose trust oversees the nonprofit that maintains the biking and walking trail, called the idea of someday replacing it with a four-lane highway “preposterous.”
Catch a screening of the award-winning documentary 'Honorable But Broken' at Theatre Three on July 11 at 6 p.m.
By Julianne Mosher
A new documentary created by a former producer for ABC News and 60 Minutes, and with the help of different EMS groups across New York State, is heading to Port Jefferson next week for a free viewing of a powerful film that will remind people how important rescue services are.
Michael Presta, deputy chief at Port Jefferson EMS, said he received a LinkedIn message from the film’s director and producer, Bryony Gilbey, asking if her 2023 award-winning documentary, Honorable But Broken: EMS in Crisis, could be shown in the area.
Catch a screening of the award-winning documentary ‘Honorable But Broken’ at Theatre Three on July 11 at 6 p.m.
After connecting with the Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Theatre Three, Presta was able to help get the film to play on Thursday, July 11 at 6 p.m. — for free — and for the first time on Long Island.
Gilbey, whose three children are EMS workers, developed the film after hearing the stories about what it was like being in emergency services pre, during and post COVID-19, plus the lack of funding these operations receive from the state and federal governments. The documentary was shot on location with EMS crews in Ossining, New York, and Montclair, New Jersey.
“The film has been circling the state for about a year now and it shows the challenges of delivering EMS services to the public,” Presta said, adding that local elected officials have been invited to attend.
“It helps paint a picture to the public and our politicians on what delivering EMS services in 2024 is like,” Presta added.
He noted that the Port Jefferson EMS helps and protects all of Port Jefferson and its surrounding communities including Mount Sinai and the Village of Port Jefferson, while also lending support to other local areas.
When Presta started his career in Port Jefferson almost two decades ago, on average there were less than 1,000 calls per year. Now, he said, they’re around 3,500.
“It’s getting harder with rising costs to deliver EMS, not just here, but everywhere. Funding is needed to support that number of calls,” he said. “This movie will give people insight.”
Narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker, the goal of the documentary is to, “raise awareness of the systemic collapse of EMS and to advocate for change. Shockingly, most states don’t mandate the provision of EMS, so funding is unpredictable and inadequate. There is a critical workforce shortage, particularly in rural areas, which in turn has led to much longer response times.”
The goal, the documentary’s official website says, is to eventually get the film onto a streaming service so everyone can see it. On the film’s official website, people can donate to help fund that endeavor, as well.
And while Honorable But Broken is not part of the Port Jefferson Documentary Series, Kelly DeVine, head programmer of the series, said that when Presta approached her and Allan Varela, president of the Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council, looking for help, both groups jumped to volunteer their resources.
Working alongside Theatre Three, the arts council offered to lend the theatre their personal movie screen so that the film could be played at the venue.
“The Port Jefferson Documentary Series is focused on bringing high-quality films normally only seen at top festivals or art house screens to our audiences and curating those titles to support our community partners and create impactful communal experiences,” DeVine said.
As for other films coming to Port Jefferson, the documentary series is moving to a new venue and day of the week. The Methodist Church on Main Street across from Theatre Three will now show its films on Thursdays starting in September.
Theatre Three is located at 412 Main Street in Port Jefferson. The screening is free and no reservations are required. For more information, call 631-928-9100.
For more information on Honorable But Broken: EMS in Crisis, visit www.honorablebutbroken.org.
Farmingdale State College has announced Dr. Robert S. Prezant has been appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees to serve as the 10th President of the College, effective August 14. He will succeed President John S. Nader, PhD, who announced his retirement last year.
“I am both humbled and honored to be joining Farmingdale State College as the next President. I extend my sincere appreciation to the SUNY Board of Trustees, Chancellor King, Farmingdale’s College Council and the presidential search committee for entrusting me with this outstanding opportunity,” said Robert Prezant, president-elect of Farmingdale State College. “The faculty, staff and students of Farmingdale State clearly stand poised to continue to excel, and to move an already exceptional college to the next level by growing additional exciting and important programs, enhancing external support, finding new corporate partners, and collaborating with the community. Farmingdale State College is fully focused on ensuring that students get a preeminent education with an emphasis on experiential opportunities, all to ensure they are fully prepared for tomorrow. It will be my pleasure and privilege to join this outstanding team.”
Dr. Prezant joins FSC from Southern Connecticut State University where he is provost and vice president for academic affairs. As provost, he has led in strategic planning, served on New England Commission of Higher Education accreditation visitation committees, led a university-wide branding effort, serves as principal investigator on a $3.2 million NSF Alliance for Minority Participation grant, created the Southern Fellows-in-Residence program to help diversify the faculty, helped grow external funding, and has led on revamping the honors college.
As a biologist and administrator, he has been the lead or co-lead in generating over $20 million in external funding to support research and academic programs. His administrative efforts have resulted in creation and support of several centers and institutes, new degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, corporate partnerships, development and enhancement of online and on-ground continuing education programs, and several global affiliations.
Dr. Prezant previously served as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at Montclair State University, dean of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Queens College, City University of New York, and chair of the biology department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in marine biology from the University of Delaware, an MS in biology (marine science) from Northeastern University, and a BA in biology from Adelphi University.
“Dr. Prezant has a wealth of experience and a record of achievement in public higher education. He understands the college and is clearly well positioned to build on Farmingdale’s many achievements,” said John S. Nader, president of Farmingdale State College. “I have no doubt that he will cultivate our growing partnerships with both businesses and philanthropies while advocating for our students and faculty. I congratulate Dr. Prezant on his appointment and look forward to working with him on a smooth transition.”
“Dr. Prezant’s track record of increasing funding to support student success during his career makes him well-suited to assume the presidency at Farmingdale State College,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. “I would also like to thank Farmingdale State College President John Nader for his incredible career of service to the SUNY system. From his time as provost at SUNY Delhi, to his tenure serving as president of SUNY’s largest technology focused campus, President Nader has moved FSC forward in a positive direction and I strongly believe Dr. Prezant will build on the strong foundation laid by President Nader.”
Reflecting on Dr. Prezant’s appointment, Farmingdale State College Council Chair Patricia Hill Williams EdD, said, “On behalf of the Farmingdale State College Council, I’m both proud and honored to congratulate Robert S. Prezant, PhD on his appointment as the tenth President of this dynamic and thriving institution. After a thorough and exhaustive search, Dr. Prezant emerged as an exceptional choice to lead FSC. The entire Council looks forward to working with Dr. Prezant to build on Farmingdale’s strong foundation, enhance the student experience and foster connections in the College community and beyond.”
The Suffolk County Police Department, assisted by the New York State Police and the Suffolk County
Sheriff’s Office, arrested three motorists during an overnight sobriety checkpoint in Huntington on July 5.
Police officers from the Suffolk County Police Department’s Highway SAFE-T Team (Selective Alcohol Fatality Enforcement Team) conducted a joint sobriety checkpoint operation with New York State Troopers and Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs in the LIRR parking lot at the corner of Route 110 and Church Street, from 11 p.m. until 2 a.m.
The checkpoint was part of an ongoing July 4th holiday weekend enforcement crackdown targeting alcohol and drug impaired driving. A total of 359 vehicles went through the checkpoint. The following three people were charged with allegedly Driving While Intoxicated:
• Larry J. Nagy, 65, of East Bradenton, FL
• Jennifer Irwin, 57, of Smithtown
• Kevin Arloff, 57, of Huntington
The arrestees will be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on July 6.
Suffolk County Police Third Squad detectives are investigating a motor vehicle crash that killed one
man and injured two others in Central Islip on July 5.
Joshua Perez-Rodriguez was driving a 2009 Honda Accord northbound on Carleton Avenue, when he failed to stop at a red light at the intersection of East Suffolk Avenue and crashed into a 2007 Toyota SUV that was traveling eastbound on East Suffolk Avenue at approximately 10:20 p.m.
Perez-Rodriguez, 23, of Brentwood, was transported to South Shore University Hospital where he was pronounced dead. A passenger in the Accord, Angel Sandoval, 19, of Brentwood, and the driver of the Toyota, were transported to the same hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks.
Detectives are asking anyone with information on the crash to contact the Third Squad at 631-854-8352.
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