Kids are dismissed early from Port Jefferson’s middle and high schools on a previous snow day. File photo by Michael Ruiz
Slippery conditions and cold temperatures are a couple of reasons to hate snow, and now Port Jefferson kids and parents have another one: cutting into the school break.
Despite a handful of snowfalls, with the help of the heaviest of them falling on a weekend, the school district has kept closings to just two days — last Friday and Monday. But those instruction days still have to be made up at some point, so that the district stays in compliance with state education regulations regarding the minimum number of school days.
Superintendent Ken Bossert said at the Port Jefferson Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night that, as a result, the snow will dig into April. The first lost day will be made up on Friday, April 22, which was originally scheduled as a staff conference day, and the other will be made up on Monday, April 25, which was supposed to be the first day of spring break.
Delayed openings and early dismissals, which the school district also uses to ensure student safety during snow events, do not affect the count of instruction days and thus do not have to be made up elsewhere.
If there are any more storms that precipitate school closings, each instruction day missed will be redeemed during the spring break, according to Bossert, cutting deeper into that vacation time.
The superintendent explained that due to the way the school calendar was designed in the 2015-16 school year, with a late Labor Day and the way the Jewishholidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur fell, the calendar was “much less flexible with building in snow days.”
Next year is shaping up to be different. The school board approved a 2016-17 calendar on Tuesday night that starts a couple of days earlier than the current year and has five snow days built in from the get-go.
“And we can actually do more than that without encroaching on religious observances and things like that,” Bossert said.
The McDonald’s in Port Jefferson has closed. Photo by Reid Biondo
A longtime fixture in downtown Port Jefferson closed last week, leaving a business next to Village Hall empty.
The McDonald’s fast food restaurant on West Broadway had been controversial when it first moved in more than a decade ago, but what has been perceived as its abrupt closure has left some scratching their heads. Visitors were met with a sign directing them to a different franchise location in Port Jefferson Station.
“I was totally shocked,” Barbara Sabatino said about when she found out the harborfront restaurant had closed.
The owners and operators of the business, franchisees Peter and Katie Hunt, said in an email statement through a McDonald’s spokesperson on Monday, “It’s been a pleasure to serve this neighborhood and we appreciate the support of the local business community, elected officials and community partners. We are very happy to report that all of our employees have accepted jobs at nearby McDonald’s locations. We remain committed to serving Port Jefferson, and we look forward to continuing our work in this community.”
Sabatino, who runs the Port Jeff Army Navy in upper Port and serves on the village planning board, was a member of the now-defunct civic association at the time McDonald’s was trying to locate in lower Port more than 15 years ago.
“They really had a difficult time,” she said. “[Some people] felt that a McDonald’s did not fit their view of Port Jefferson.”
There were also people on the other side of the argument, she added, who had an attitude of “what’s the big deal?”
While village officials said they were concerned about how the restaurant would look, Sabatino said, the owner was “cooperative” on the architecture and finishing touches, giving it that “seafaring town look, with the dormers on the top and the little trim.”
And the business owner noted that the restaurant has been a good neighbor, cleaning up trash and keeping the property looking nice.
The controversy over it coming in was enough to spur the village board of trustees to take precautions for the future.
According to the village code, officials amended Port Jefferson’s zoning laws in June 2000 to prohibit “formula fast food establishments” in both the C-1 and C-2 central commercial districts, which are located along the main drag in the downtown and uptown areas, respectively.
Police say they used DNA to find a burglar who broke into a house a few months ago and assaulted the homeowner who found him.
The burglary occurred on Oct. 3, when the suspect entered a Huntington Station home around 7:40 p.m., according to the Suffolk County Police Department. After the owner discovered the intruder, police said, there was a struggle and the burglar told the victim he had a handgun. The burglar fled the scene afterward.
Police said detectives from the 2nd Squad recovered DNA evidence that was linked to 59-year-old Scott Lundquist of Huntington Station.
Lundquist was arrested on Friday afternoon and charged with first-degree burglary, third-degree assault and resisting arrest.
The defendant was listed as representing himself on the state court system’s database and could not be reached for comment.
Police have made a third arrest in connection with the several businesses and vehicles damaged in Huntington early on Thanksgiving.
The suspects allegedly targeted eight local businesses and five cars that day. According to the Suffolk County Police Department, officers from the 2nd Precinct Crime Section canvassed the area, reviewed video surveillance and followed up on anonymous tips to identify and get to the trio.
Four businesses on the small stretch of Stewart Avenue were listed as victims of the vandals, including a furniture store, Gold Coast Lobsters, an x-ray supply company and an unnamed building that was under construction. Police also listed the Italian restaurant Bravo! Nader just down the street, on Union Place, as well as a telecommunications company on that same block. According to police, the nearby Stop & Shop on Wall Street and the Value Drugs on New York Avenue, across Route 25A from the other seven locations, were also hit.
William Strein mugshot from SCPD
The first suspect, 18-year-old Huntington resident Francesco Volpe, was arrested on Dec. 19 and charged with three counts of criminal mischief and three of making graffiti. About a month later, police arrested 21-year-old William Strein, of East Northport, and charged him with six counts of each of those offenses.
Police announced on Friday that officers had arrested the third suspect, 27-year-old Queens resident Drake Mandrell, the day before. Like Strein, he was charged with six counts each of criminal mischief and making graffiti.
Attorney information for the three was not immediately available. According to police, they will be arraigned at a later date.
Police asked that anyone with information about these incidents or similar ones called the Crime Section at 631-854-8226 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.
Emergency medical workers rushed on Tuesday to rescue a young man who had been hit by a car just feet from their station.
The Huntington Community First Aid Squad said an “agitated young man” in front of its Huntington Station headquarters got the attention of the on-duty dispatcher at about 3:45 p.m. and pointed to the nearby intersection of Railroad Street and Lowndes Avenue. Several members at that point could see another person lying motionless in the street, and the squad dispatched an ambulance and a first-responder vehicle to the intersection.
The crew found an unconscious and unresponsive male around 18 years old who had been hit by a vehicle while trying to cross the street, the HCFAS said in a statement. “The crew members quickly immobilized the victim and performed a trauma examination.”
After being moved to the ambulance, the victim regained consciousness, the HCFAS said, and could communicate with the EMTs. According to the squad, he had possibly suffered a head injury.
The victim was transported to Huntington Hospital.
The Port Jefferson Volunteer Ambulance Company serves Port Jefferson, Belle Terre and Mount Sinai. File photo
Village officials have blocked the local ambulance company from billing residents for service, three months after an explosive debate on the practice.
A few residents argued during a Port Jefferson Village Board of Trustees meeting in November that it was unfair, after paying ambulance district taxes, they received bills for ambulance rides when their insurance companies either denied a claim or left them with a hefty deductible to pay. But the board insisted such bills were not the intention of the plan enacted several years ago to help their emergency medical organization recoup expenses.
Faced with rising costs in the ambulance district — which includes Port Jefferson, Belle Terre and Mount Sinai — the board authorized the Port Jefferson Volunteer Ambulance Company to bill patients’ insurance companies for service within their jurisdiction, using the collected funds to offset ambulance taxes.
The bills being sent later on to patients, according to PJVAC Deputy Chief Rob Stoessel, originated because his group and its third-party billing company are obligated to ask for the balance if the insurance does not cover the entire cost. In November he described the requirement as a “good faith attempt.”
Before insurance, the fee on a call for emergency medical care is $900, with an additional $18 for each mile the ambulance transports a patient. Stoessel said that amount takes into consideration both medical and nonmedical expenses like gasoline.
Both he and Mayor Margot Garant agreed that when the billing program was created, the idea was for patients to receive three notices for bills, with no consequences for not paying — as the ambulance company does not have a mechanism for collections.
“The insurance companies, God bless them — collect every nickel from them,” Garant said in November. But “we didn’t want the resident to be pursued for any of the fees.”
Residents who received the bills complained that wasn’t common knowledge, and they were concerned about their credit ratings.
Monica Williams was denied Medicare coverage for her treatment.
“I don’t really think that any village resident … should be looking at a bill like that,” Williams said in November. “It’s surprising. It’s disappointing.”
She called it “being billed for the same thing twice.”
But Williams saw a solution on Monday night, when the Board of Trustees voted to ban the ambulance company from billing residents.
The previous law that allowed the company “to bill, directly, village residents for the use of its ambulance services … is hereby rescinded,” according to the measure members approved at their meeting. It also forgives all unpaid balances currently hanging against residents.
PJVAC will still be able to collect funds from the insurance companies.
Garant said there would be consequences “if we hear of any resident getting any more collection documents from the ambulance [district].”
Two men were killed and one was seriously injured in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after police say one of them lost control of his car and slammed into a tree.
The Suffolk County Police Department said 26-year-old Hauppauge resident Leland Acampora crashed the Hyundai Sonata at about 4:30 a.m. while heading west on Fort Salonga Road near Makamah Road.
Both he and 26-year-old Commack resident Woody Zalman, who had been sitting in the back seat, were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. However, front seat passenger Paul Weingart, a 26-year-old from East Northport, was in serious condition at Stony Brook University Hospital, after being airlifted there by police helicopter.
Police impounded the Hyundai for a safety check.
Detectives from the SCPD’s 2nd Squad are investigating the single-car crash. Anyone with information is asked to call them at 631-854-8252.
Port Jefferson Trustee Larry LaPointe stands with code officers, from left, James Murdocco, John Vinicombe, Paul Barbato and Gina Savoie as they pose with their proclamations. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Port Jefferson Village honored five code enforcement officers on Monday night who officials say went above the call of duty to serve the community.
Two helped save an overdosing man’s life, one attempted to revive a car crash victim, another thwarted a burglary and a lieutenant protected the village during the recent heavy snowstorm. The board of trustees presented them with proclamations for their service to cheers from the audience at Village Hall.
Gina Savoie was commended for preventing a break-in at a home in the Harbor Hills area earlier this month after she saw suspicious activity and called for police assistance. According to code bureau Chief Wally Tomaszewski, two Coram residents were arrested for loitering as a result.
Paul Barbato, who received a proclamation last year for reviving a man in cardiac arrest at a Port Jefferson restaurant, was honored again Monday for attempting to save a Belle Terre man trapped inside a Lamborghini that had crashed into a pole on East Broadway. Barbato, the first on the scene of the mid-December crash near High Street, got inside the car and performed CPR.
Lt. John Borrero is honored. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Although his attempt ultimately proved unsuccessful, he “tried desperately to save his life,” Tomaszewski said in a previous interview. “Believe me, his boots were filled with blood.”
A couple of weeks later, James Murdocco and John Vinicombe responded to an opioid overdose at the Islandwide Taxi stand near the Port Jefferson Long Island Rail Road station. Mayor Margot Garant said Monday that the officers were told the young victim was dead, and they found no pulse or respiration. Murdocco and Vinicombe each administered the anti-overdose medication Narcan and Murdocco performed CPR.
The man regained consciousness and “became violent,” she said, and had to be restrained.
Garant added an unplanned honor to Monday night’s affair, commending Lt. John Borrero for his work during the blizzard, commonly dubbed Winter Storm Jonas, that hit Long Island hard on Jan. 23.
“I cannot tell you what this one gentleman did, on tour all day, making sure our streets are safe, shutting down roads, calling other code enforcement officers in during a massive blizzard — he’s out there helping employees get to work at St. Charles Hospital,” the mayor said. “Your service to this community is just invaluable, John. I cannot tell you the amount of respect you earned that night.”
She told the audience that there is more to the code enforcement bureau than meets the eye.
“These officers are not merely giving out tickets,” Garant said, “but they’re saving lives.”
Police say they seized drugs and cash from a Coram home last week. Photo from SCPD
Police will execute more search warrants and make more arrests at known hotspots for drug activity under a new initiative officials announced over the weekend.
The same day police arrested a father and son and seized more than a kilogram of drugs from the father’s home, the Suffolk County Police Department said it is focusing more on shutting down houses in residential areas where drug activity is suspected to be taking place.
That father-son pair was nabbed on Jan. 29, police said, after investigators executed a search warrant on a Coram home and found 730 grams of cocaine, 318 grams of heroin, 36 grams of oxycodone and $200,000 in cash. It was just the most recent in a string of busts through the initiative, which uses detectives from the Special Operations Team “to work with residents to obtain information on who is dealing and where,” according to an SCPD statement. “Armed with that information, detectives will be executing more search warrants of drug houses and making felony arrests at those locations.”
The effort is “fueled in part by residents’ complaints,” the SCPD said in the recent press release.
Police officials at a Jan. 26 civic meeting at the Comsewogue Public Library in Port Jefferson Station had reported raids at three local drug houses in the week leading up to the meeting, two in Gordon Heights and one in Centereach. At the latter location, 6th Precinct Inspector Bill Murphy said, cops busted a repeat offender and caught him with 4 ounces of cocaine and 2 ounces of heroin.
Police say they seized drugs and cash from a Coram home last week. Photo from SCPD
“He’s going away for a long time,” Murphy said.
In the police department’s announcement of its new initiative, it said investigators had executed nine search warrants in the several weeks since the effort started, seizing thousands of grams of drugs — including crack cocaine and heroin — as well as seven guns, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and drug paraphernalia.
“This new narcotics initiative will target residences where drug dealing is occurring,” Acting Police Commissioner Tim Sini said in a statement. “Drug houses in our neighborhoods degrade our sense of community, public safety and quality of life.”
In the Jan. 29 bust, 40-year-old Joseph Fearon, who police said lived at the Avalon Pines Drive home, was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, four counts of third-degree criminal possession and two counts of second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia.
Fearon’s attorney, Central Islip-based Glenn Obedin, did not return a call seeking a comment on his client.
The defendant’s son, 23-year-old Jasheme Fearon, a Middle Island resident, was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminal impersonation. Police also said that he was arrested on a New York State parole warrant and a bench warrant.
Attorney information for the younger Fearon was not available.
Drug activity can create spikes in other types of crimes. At the civic meeting last week in the Comsewogue library, Murphy said overall crime has dropped in his precinct but heroin arrests have doubled in the last five years — from 148 in 2011 to 298 last year — and the addicts are behind many of the area’s burglaries and robberies.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the serious crimes we have are driven by drug abuse: [The perpetrators are] addicted to heroin and they’re so addicted to it, they have to get money to go and buy these drugs,” he said.
He and Officer Will Gibaldi invited Port Jefferson Station and Terryville residents at the civic meeting, including some who expressed their frustrations and fears relating to local drug activity, to reach out to them if they have a problem in their neighborhoods.
“If you contact me with a problem, you will get a response,” the inspector said. “You will not be ignored.”
The police’s new drug-house initiative is likewise geared toward responding to community members’ concerns.
“Working together with our law enforcement partners and sharing information is imperative to getting dangerous drugs off our streets and out of our communities,” Legislator Sarah Anker said in a statement about the crackdown on community drug dealing. “If you see something, say something.”
A man previously convicted of a sexual offense against a minor was arrested on Thursday after allegedly being caught undressed inside a vehicle with a 14-year-old boy.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, an officer was on routine patrol when he spotted the car in a dark area of the parking lot of the Fort Salonga Shopping Center on Route 25A, near Bread and Cheese Hollow Road, shortly after midnight.
Police said the 4th Precinct officer, Dennis Lynch, approached and saw two people inside with their clothes off: registered sex offender and vehicle owner Kieran Bunce, 48, and a 14-year-old boy.
The pair had arranged their meeting over a cell phone application, police said, and sexual contact did occur.
Bunce is a registered Level 1 offender. According to the database of Parents for Megan’s Law, a nonprofit advocacy and victim support group that monitors sex offenders, Bunce was previously convicted on a 2003 sexual misconduct charge stemming from an incident with a 16-year-old girl.
That charge, a Class A misdemeanor, is a crime of sexual intercourse with someone without their consent, whether it is because the victim is a minor, mentally incapacitated or forced, according to state penal law.
According to the Parents for Megan’s Law database, Bunce was sentenced to six years of probation for that 2003 offense.
The Melville resident was charged with two felony counts of second-degree criminal sex act, as well as the misdemeanor first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Attorney information for Bunce was not immediately available. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.
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