Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Jane Bonner and Suffolk County Legislator Chad Lennon joined the McDonald’s at 463 Route 25A in Rocky Point for a grand re-opening celebration on Oct. 26. The long-time fast-food restaurant was completely renovated, both inside and out. McDonalds mascot “Grimace” (center) and staff were presented with a Certificate of Congratulations from both local officials.
Join the Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington for a special screening of The Girl Who Wore Freedom on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. The documentary explores the untold stories of the men, women, and children of Normandy, France, who lived through German occupation, the D-Day invasion, and the liberation by Allied forces.
Long forgotten by the world, twenty thousand French civilians were killed during the Battle of Normandy. But those still living in Normandy haven’t forgotten, and continue to celebrate and embrace Americans for their liberation and the ultimate gift of freedom. Exploring D-Day through the personal stories of French survivors and American veterans, The Girl Who Wore Freedom captures the journey from war to forgiveness, and gratitude, honoring the legacy of those who fought for freedom.
Tickets are $16, $10 members. To purchase in advance, visit www.cinemaartscentre.org or click here.
By Toni-Elena Gallo
The Port Jefferson chapter of the Lions Club is an organization that strives to make a difference in the community in which it serves.
Founded in Chicago back in 1917, the club was launched by a “group of businessmen who wanted to do more for their communities,” according to the Lions International website, and reiterated on a phone interview with Rick Giovan, a member of the Port Jeff chapter’s board of directors and former president. Today, the Lions Club has over 48,000 clubs with 1.4 million members in more than 200 countries and geographic areas, working by the credo “we serve.”
According to Giovan, the Port Jefferson chapter is committed to helping people of all backgrounds, specifically those facing food insecurity, substance use problems — as well as their families — sight and vision problems and people with disabilities.
The emphasis on helping people who suffer from low vision came to be in 1925, when Helen Keller encouraged the Lions to become “the knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness” at their international convention.
Among the charities that are supported, “we work with the Guide Dog Foundation [in Smithtown], the Cleary School for the Deaf [in Lake Ronkonkoma] and the Port Jefferson Library, where we help fund certain devices to help members with low vision,” Giovan said.
“We’ll sometimes get a call from a school guidance counselor saying something like, ‘This fourth grader really needs glasses, and the family just can’t afford it,’ and it is so nice to be able to help in those situations.”
The club membership is made up of people from “all different socioeconomic backgrounds,” Giovan said.
“There is no requirement to pay the club. Some members may offer a $1,000 check to a cause, while another member may be more generous with their time and has their hands and feet on the ground more. Everyone does what they can,” he added.
The Port Jeff Lions Club community fund raises money through donations, as well as numerous yearly fundraisers. There is a golf classic, movie nights — where theaters are rented out for guests and members — and car shows, to name a few.
Two initiatives that the club is especially passionate about are its annual Holiday Food Baskets and Christmas Magic events.
According to Giovan, every Nov. 22 prior to Thanksgiving, Lions members along with community volunteers and school children, unpack the food trucks they have ordered from, and bag groceries — three for each family with some money used to purchase the merchandise coming from local businesses, and the rest from donations.
“The club asks for $50 donations for this event, but you can give less or more — whatever people can. And, if they would like to donate, they can send a check to P.O. Box 202, Port Jefferson, NY 11777,” Giovan said.
“After that, we make deliveries on the 23rd, and give each family a ham, as well,” he continued. “It is very satisfying to see people so grateful. Oftentimes, we’ll see a young, single woman, with a couple of kids, living in a very modest apartment, and they just appreciate the food so much.”
The Christmas Magic night has been run by the Port Jeff Lions Club president, Linda Eicholz, for the past three years. This unique occasion sees a Lions Club member take the wish list of a local child, and “purchase all of their requests,” Giovan said.
“One of the members will dress up as Santa, and say, ‘I have a big bag for Nicole,’ for example, and hand that child a wrapped bag of all of their presents. It brings such a smile to their faces.”
For more information about the Port Jeff Lions Club events, how to donate and how to become a member, please visit the website: e-clubhouse.org/sites/portjefferson.
By Bill Landon
Newfield was thirsty for a win on senior recognition day when the team hosted West Babylon, but the Wolverines would go unquenched, falling 21-12 in their season finale Saturday, Nov. 2.
After a four-minute sustained drive by the Eagles that yielded no points, Newfield’s Matthew Evers threw deep to Gavin Smith on a 50-yard pass play that went the distance for the touchdown. Newfield’s two point-conversion failed.
West Babylon scored two unanswered touchdowns before Evers found Smith again, and a 42-yard strike was good enough for the score. With another failed conversion, the Wolverines trailed the Eagles 14-12 at the half.
West Babylon struck again in the third quarter but Newfield was unable to answer as their offense struggled to gain traction the rest of the way.
Newfield concluded their 2024 campaign with a 5-3 record in Division II.
— Photos by Bill Landon
Philomena Mistretta Allegedly Ran Over the Victim with Her Car After an Argument
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on Nov. 8 that Philomena Mistretta, 51, of Coram, was indicted for Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, and other related charges, for allegedly intentionally striking a 63-year-old woman with a minivan following a verbal and physical altercation with the victim at a public parking lot in Bellport.
“Using a vehicle as a weapon demonstrates a shocking disregard for human life. Fortunately, the victim in this particular case survived, but the alleged actions here serve as a stark reminder that rage behind a wheel can be just as dangerous as rage behind a loaded gun,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Today’s indictment reflects the seriousness of these allegations.”
According to the investigation, on October 26, 2024, shortly after 3:30 a.m., Mistretta was sitting in the driver’s seat of a 2004 White Toyota Sienna when she allegedly was involved in a verbal dispute with the victim who was standing next to the passenger side of the vehicle. The argument, at the parking lot of Miracle Plaza off Montauk Highway in Bellport, escalated after Mistretta got out of her vehicle then got into a physical altercation with the victim. Mistretta then allegedly returned into her vehicle, backed up, angled her car towards the victim, and then drove over her, dragging the victim for a short distance.
The victim was transported to Long Island Community Hospital with lacerations to her skull. Suffolk County Police officers arrested Mistretta at the scene.
On November 7, 2024, Mistretta was arraigned before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard I. Horowitz for the following charges contained in the indictment:
Justice Horowitz ordered Mistretta held on $100,000 cash, $200,000 or $750,000 partially secured bond during the pendency of the case. Mistretta is due back in court on December 10, 2024, and faces 25 years in prison if convicted on the top count. She is being represented by Chase Brown, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Patrick J. Mullen and Scott Romano of the Major Crime Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detective John McGay of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Fifth Squad.
By Bill Landon
It was a twist of fate that the Thomas Cutinella Memorial Field was selected as the venue for the girls soccer finals before the season began. As a result, the Shoreham-Wading River girls soccer team had a home field advantage in the Suffolk County Class A soccer final Tuesday night, Nov. 5.
Mia Mangano had a shot on goal that just missed eight minutes into the second half, but the Shoreham-Wading River junior capitalized on the rebound courtesy of an assist from sophomore Stamatia Almiroudis to put the Wildcats ahead 1-0 against Sayville.
It would be all the Wildcats needed to punch their ticket to the Long Island championship round Sunday, Nov. 10, at Farmingdale State College.
It was the Wildcats third straight county championship and their goal is to return to the New York State finals.
Shoreham-Wading River will face the Nassau winner of the North Shore vs. Wantagh final.
— Photos by Bill Landon
By Sabrina Artusa
Savion Energy representatives stood before the Three Village Civic Association membership Monday, Nov. 4, to present their proposed battery storage facilities in East Setauket. Savion is a Shell Group portfolio company that develops utility-scale solar and energy storage projects.
One project is proposed for a lot off Sheep Pasture Road, while another location would be between Parsonage Road and Old Town Road.
Environmental benefits
These proposals arrive in the midst of a statewide effort to increase green energy sources and transition away from fossil fuels. In 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) doubled the state’s energy storage goal. Further, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in 2019, aims for 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040.
These battery storage facilities is one among many being proposed across Long Island as power plants like the fossil-burning plant in Port Jefferson close.
Savion’s facilities will consist of containers of lithium-ion batteries that store excess energy during peak hours and discharge electricity as needed. The batteries, which have a life of about 20 years, will be charged and discharged on a daily basis but would be especially useful during increment weather when renewable energy sources are unreliable.
The batteries would take eight hours to charge and allow Long Island to ease its reliance on nonrenewable energy. The transition is intended to diminish adverse environmental effects by lessening greenhouse gas emissions.
Location and safety
The location is one of the major topics of contention. The locations are in close proximity to neighborhoods, making some residents uneasy.
Nicholas Petrakis, senior consultant of consulting firm Energy Safety Response Group, assured civic association members that scrupulous measures were instituted to minimize the chances of thermal runaway. This process occurs when a damaged cell releases heat and gasses, thus triggering the same reaction in nearby cells.
James McDaniel, senior battery storage engineer at Savion, said their systems are containerized and “designed to burn themselves out” and “fail safely”. The sites will be remotely monitored constantly by a team of experts, Petrakis said, and there is a sensor system that would notify the fire department and shut down the battery if anything is amiss.
Toxic off-gassing is a possibility — one that Petrakis said is a possible effect of most residential fires as well. Many present were apprehensive by this prospect. Further, the water used to counter any fires was a cause for concern, but Sean Flannery, senior director of permitting & environmental at Savion, said that “water runoff has not shown to be an issue” and that it will be contained on the property.
Residents from across the Island were present at this meeting, hoping to learn more about the battery storage systems that are proposed in their own towns. Many questioned the location, asking why it was necessary to install the facilities in such a dense area.
“Why would you consider putting something like this in this dense area?” one man asked. “The fact that in your proposed pictures you can see people’s houses doesn’t instill support.”
Indeed, the buffer wall intended to keep the noise to the 50 decibels allowed in the Town of Brookhaven code is visible in a picture of what Savion expects each site to look like from a surrounding residential area.
William Miller, managing partner at Clearview Consultants, explained that the project needs to be close to the electrical load it serves. Savion plans to lease the land for both sites.
County Legislator Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) empathized with their constituents. Englebright, who throughout his career has supported environmental initiatives, said the locations have been historically difficult places to fill, given the zoning as light industrial.
“Something that is environmentally complicated and potentially harmful is not anything new to this area,” he said. Although he said he sympathizes with “all these correct uncertainties,” he added that residents have “to understand the larger context of what’s coming at us” in regards to the changing environment.
In response to a question of who will bear the financial burden of damages in the case a fire hypothetically causes damage to surrounding properties, Thom Rainwater, director of development at Savion, said, “In the case of an incident the company will be responsible. Full stop.”
By Stephanie Giunta
As the holiday season approaches, the air in Port Jefferson fills with the unmistakable spirit of Christmas—a joyous and abundant feeling that resonates throughout the community. Amid the festive hustle and the cherished traditions, we are thrilled to celebrate a special milestone: the 40th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic, A Christmas Carol, at Theatre Three.
This enduring tale of redemption has been masterfully adapted year after year by Jeffrey Sanzel, who not only serves as the production’s director but also takes on the beloved and complex role of Ebenezer Scrooge. The cast’s heartfelt performances continue to attract both new audiences and long-time fans alike, with Sanzel sprinkling different nuances into the mix to keep the production unchanging yet fresh.
In honor of the show’s ruby anniversary, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sanzel about his enduring passion for the role, some of his fondest memories, his unique adaptation of Scrooge, and more.
How many times have you played Scrooge in the production of A Christmas Carol?
The opening night of this year’s A Christmas Carol, November 9, will be my 1,590th performance.
How did you come about to play Scrooge? What first sparked your interest in the role?
I first played Scrooge when I was teaching at John F. Kennedy High School in Somers, New York. I produced and directed a student-faculty production. None of the teachers wanted to play Scrooge, so my assistant director suggested I do it. That was my first real encounter with the story beyond watching movies and cartoons growing up. I don’t think I had even read the story until then.
Are there any particularly memorable shows you can recall over the years?
During one performance there was torrential downpour, and we lost power. We ended up playing the rest of the show using lanterns. Another time, we had an onstage mishap and had to finish the show in the parking lot.
What are some of your favorite memories that you look back on?
I’ve worked with hundreds of actors over the years. Some of them grew up in the show—starting as The Girl/Want and going right through to Fan—even one who came back and played Belle.
There have been milestones—my 500th and 1,000th performances come to mind. Douglas Quattrock, a long time Bob Cratchit, his 500th was a special show. Probably, the most exciting and memorable was a special show we did in the 25th anniversary season. It was the first year we had the new set—a brilliant design by Randall Parsons [complemented by Robert Henderson’s powerful lighting design]—the set we continue to use 15 seasons later. On the Sunday night of opening weekend, we had a performance just for A Christmas Carol veterans—actors, designers, technicians, front of house staff—all people with a connection to the production over two and a half decades. They were the best audience reacting to every new piece—a wall opening or steam coming off the goose.
In each year’s production, do you put a different twist on Scrooge or have you preferred consistency in persona?
As I am the adaptor, I am always reworking and tweaking the production. Sometimes I make large changes—rewriting scenes or removing dialogue and replacing it with tableau or music. As far as the character goes, I think it is influenced by who I am playing opposite. There was one year that I took a completely different approach to the character. I pulled him way back, took a lot of the vocal size and energy out of it. I was aiming to make him as real as possible. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a mess. My performance ended up lacking impact. Maybe it played well to the first few rows, but overall, I think I learned that a bit of “more” is important. With the exception of that year, the growth in the character has been gradual. I’m sure some years are better than others.
What are some lessons you have learned in playing a complex character like Scrooge?
From a technical perspective, finding a moment in the few seconds offstage to take a drink of water. It’s a lot of talking!
I guess on a personal level, the theme is always how one person can make a difference for good or ill in the world.
We know that Scrooge has a change of heart and grows to love and exude the true meaning of Christmas. How does being a key part of A Christmas Carol impact your love and appreciation for the Christmas season?
My Christmas is A Christmas Carol. I am Jewish, so Christmas growing up was watching Christmas specials, maybe decorating a neighbor’s tree, that sort of thing. Obviously, after 37 years, I have a whole different experience. It is part of my life year-round and certainly from the end of September to the end of December.
Over the years, I’ve become a collector of A Christmas Carol memorabilia—books, tapes/DVDs, audio recordings, sketches and paintings, figurines, bookmarks, comic books, candle snuffers, trivets, board games…I’ll pretty much watch or read anything with A Christmas Carol in them. I’ve been to Dickens’ house in London. I met his great-grandson, Cedric Dickens, there.
I also have rituals. Before we go into rehearsal, I start by re-reading Tom Mula’s extraordinary Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol—one of my favorite books. Immediately following every performance, I have to set-up for the next show—I won’t leave the building until that’s done. I’ve used certain props for over 30 years.
Outside of A Christmas Carol, my favorite thing about the holiday is driving around looking at Christmas lights.
Theatre Three’s A Christmas Carol is a long-term collaborative effort. My predecessor, artistic director, Bradlee Bing; managing director Vivian Koutrakos, who has been the show’s champion even prior to my coming to the theatre, resident musical director, Ellen Michelmore, and associate artistic director, Brent Erlanson, both who have passed away, made contributions that still resonate with the current production. Actors, designers, and behind-the-scenes people give a piece of themselves and leave a mark on the production.
And then, of course, the audience that comes year after year. Having done it for nearly four decades, I’m now meeting the children of the people who saw the show as children. Paul Davis wrote a comprehensive study of the story, The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge (1990). He captures its power: “[Charles Dickens] may have framed our thoughts and established the broad outlines of the story, but the Carol is rewritten each Christmas, and Scrooge, an altered spirit, appears anew with each retelling.”
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Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson will present A Christmas Carol from November 9 through December 28. All tickets are $25 in November and range from $25 to $40 in December. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
By Nancy Marr
We frequently hear the mandate “Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle,” but is that really the answer to our waste problem?
Yes, recycling can work, but it’s not perfect. A recycling business can refurbish and recycle goods or can even create new products from recycled materials. It reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills, and conserves resources like water, minerals, and timber by reducing the need to collect new raw materials.
Local government must provide incentives for businesses to invest in research to develop ways to recycle and reproduce products that can be sold. Modern urban recycling, which began with the passage of New Jersey’s mandatory recycling law in 1984, has successfully created a tremendous supply of recycled newspapers, glass bottles, office paper, and other materials. But when it comes to creating markets to meet consumer and business demand for the products made from these materials, the economics of recycling falls apart.
The U.S. has a national recycling goal to increase the recycling rate to 50% by 2030, from a rate of 7% in 1960 and 32% in 1923. Between 70% and 90% of all items that could be recycled now end up in the landfill. An important success has been the Better Bottle Bill that was passed originally in New York State in 1983.
Purchasers of bottled water, beer, wine coolers or soda are charged a fee, and are reimbursed when they return them to be re-produced. Returned bottles are sorted based on the type of material (glass, plastic, aluminum), and cleaned. The plastics are then shredded into small flakes and melted down into small pellets which can be used for new bottles.
To make it more effective, the New York Legislature has written a Bigger, Better Bottle Bill, which would add glass bottles with non-carbonated liquids and iced tea, and increase the deposit price and the reimbursement price to ten cents. It did not pass in this year’s Albany Legislature, although it will surely be legislated again, or re-written into a bill that mandates the return of bottles.
In fact, as David Biddle, Executive Director of the Public Recycling Officials of Pennsylvania, points out in the Harvard Business Review, recycling is not just a matter of recovering recyclable material; it’s a total economic system. Few people realize that their local curbside collection program is only the beginning of a recycling loop. Unless consumers want to buy the recycled products, the markets for the material they put out at the curb will remain depressed.
While public policymakers are still trying to improve their recycling programs, large corporations and small entrepreneurs alike are in the best position to take the lead. Top managers of companies like American Airlines, Bell Atlantic, and Coca-Cola have made buying recycled products and investing in green R&D part of their overall business strategies, which has allowed them to cut down on waste, increase profit margins, and, in some cases, truly close the recycling loop. The success of recycling—indeed, its true value in the long term—won’t depend on how much landfill space is saved but on whether or not recycling makes economic sense.
U.S. manufacturers haven’t always been so slow to invest. For decades, the steel and aluminum industries have successfully developed their respective technologies to incorporate large quantities of post-consumer recycled materials. Aluminum cans all contain a high percentage of recycled content, and virtually all products made with steel contain at least 25% reclaimed steel. In general, these two industries couldn’t survive without the heavy input of recycled material; and in this, they are models for the lagging paper and plastics industries. The universal recycle icon (three arrows in a Mobius loop) shows whether the item can be recycled, or may have been recycled.
Government also needs to enlist university scientists and train students to find additional ways to process glass, plastics, fabrics, and other items that now end up in the landfill. Local governments need to provide education about the importance of recycling and the materials consumers place in their curbside recycle bins.
By mandating recycling and setting extremely high recovery goals for both paper and plastics, government has challenged U.S. industry to develop the necessary infrastructure for incorporating these materials into manufacturing processes. Yet for this challenge to be met, local government needs to find ways to involve business and industry in using and creating recycled products.
Nancy Marr is first vice-president of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org or call 631-862-6860.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
In 1989, Raw published Richard McGuire’s six-page comic strip, Here. The thirty-five panels followed a single location but spanned 500,957,406,073 B.C. to 2033 A.D. Often, the panels contained other images within, depicting multiple time frames simultaneously. In 2014, Pantheon Books published McGuire’s full-length graphic novel. The 304 pages traced the same space from 3,000,500,000 B.C. to A.D. 22,175, concentrating on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, predominantly focusing on the living room of a house built in 1907.
As a senior thesis project in 1991, students from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Department of Film and Video created a six-minute film of the original comic. An immersive V.R. film based on the full-length novel was designed and produced by British Fifty Nine Productions, under the direction of Lysander Ashton, with music by Anna Meredith.
Now, director Robert Zemeckis brings his adaptation to the big screen. The prolific Zemeckis broke out with the 1978 I Wanna Hold Your Hand. His work includes Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, and Contact, among others. His 1994 Forest Gump won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (for Tom Hanks). Over the years, Zemeckis has teamed with Hanks on Pinocchio, The Polar Express, and Cast Away. Here reunites Hanks with his Gump co-star, Robin Wright.
Zemeckis (who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth) uses the basic idea and framework of the novel but instead chooses to highlight on the twentieth-century Young family that occupies the house. While still weaving back and forth through time, it eventually settles into a more chronological telling of the one family.
The first eight minutes progress through thousands of years of history (dinosaurs, volcanic eruption or asteroids, Ice Age), but then Here slows down to offer a handful of earlier years, including a native American couple and their tribe, as well as a view of the house across the street where Benjamin Franklin’s son, the loyalist William, lived. Of the former, the indigenous people seem cast from a 1960s history museum diorama. The late eighteenth-century Revolutionary War moments feel like a community theatre production of 1776.
The earliest inhabitants of the house, the Harters (Michelle Dockery and Gwilym Lee), serve little function except establishing occupancy and a nod to the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 (with a parallel later with the COVID pandemic). A slight subplot about aviation grates. The Beekmans follow—Stella (Ophelia Lovibond) and her inventor husband, Leo (David Fynn), who provide a humorous and interesting diversion.
Zemeckis trades the book’s panoramic and epic nature to emphasize the Young family’s day-to-day struggles. Recently discharged from the service, World War II veteran Al Young (Paul Bettany) purchases the house for his wife, Rose (Kelly Reilly). Here, they raise their family—two boys and a girl. The oldest, Richard (Hanks), impregnates his girlfriend Margaret (Wright) on the living room sofa. The couple weds, taking up residence in the house. What follows is years of joys and sorrows, trials and tribulations—marriage and children, illness and death.
Throughout their story, flashes of the earlier inhabitants recur, as well as the Harris family (Nikki Amuka-Bird and Nicholas Pinnock), who take the house when Richard sells it. Perhaps Zemeckis is trying to draw parallels between these disparate worlds—but, unlike McGuire—he does not succeed.
Here veers towards the saccharine when it is trying to be its most sincere. The Hallmark (card, not network) feel hovers around most of the stiff dialogue. Instead of simple, the exchanges feel simplistic. The messages about love, family, dreams, art, and loss seem predictable and lack anything bordering on revelatory. The best-landing moments can be attributed to the Young quartet and the inherent honesty in their performances, even when saddled with two- and even one-dimensional material.
From a visual standpoint, Here is almost a one-camera set-up. We view the living room straight on as it evolves and shifts, often picture-in-picture(-in picture). The effect alternates between clever and precious. Sometimes, the entire experience feels like Disney’s Carousel of Time. And speaking of Disney, the A.I. intelligence Metaphysic Life, used for face-swapping and de-aging the actors in real-time (instead of post-production), presents a young Tom Hanks looking more like the puppet Pinocchio than his real boy counterpart.
In the end, the film works and doesn’t work. For some audiences, they will embrace a concept taken to its fullest and a sometimes touching family saga. For others, Here is a gimmick with a center that is human, but not inspiring, tapping into soap opera plots that overstay the hundred-minute running time. Gertrude Stein said of her hometown, Oakland, “There is no there there.” Ultimately, with Zemeckis’s film, there is no Here there either.
Rated PG-13, the film is now playing in local theaters.
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