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Authors Posts by Elana Glowatz

Elana Glowatz

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Elana Glowatz is TBR's online editor and resident nerd. She very much loves her dog, Zoe the doodle.

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File photo

A mother was delivering a baby on the side of the road when officers on patrol stepped in early Wednesday morning.

The Suffolk County Police Department said a car was stopped on the side of Deer Park Avenue, just south of Jericho Turnpike in Dix Hills, shortly after 2 a.m. and when patrol officer Joseph Ferro offered assistance, the driver said his wife was in active labor.

Officers Gerard Maxim and Jonathan Murray also responded, police said, and Murray helped the 32-year-old woman deliver a healthy baby girl.

Police said the Huntington Community First Aid Squad transported the Dix Hills couple and their new baby to Huntington Hospital.

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Suffolk County police car. File photo

A man in a mask stole prescription narcotics from a North Shore pharmacy on Sunday afternoon, according to police.

The incident started at about 1:30 p.m., when the suspect entered a Shop Rite on the south side of Nesconset Highway in Hauppauge, near the intersection with Route 111, the Suffolk County Police Department said. The man, clad in a ski mask and sunglasses, went to the pharmacy counter and demanded the drugs, and an employee complied.

Police said the man did not threaten violence or display a weapon during the robbery. He fled on foot, going south toward Route 111.

According to police, the suspect has been described as a white male with a medium build who is between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall. He was wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt and khaki pants at the time of the crime.

Detectives from the SCPD’s Pattern Crime Unit are investigating the robbery. Anyone with information is asked to call Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.

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File photo

Police arrested two men who allegedly tried to steal tires and rims from cars at a dealership in Smithtown early Sunday morning, with the help of a police dog named Thor.

Officers Frank Filiberto and Vincent Liberato first came upon the suspects as they looked around the King O’Rourke dealership on Nesconset Highway in Smithtown, the Suffolk County Police Department said. Filiberto, while on patrol, had seen a suspicious vehicle turn into the business’ rear lot at about 2:30 a.m. and called for backup. As he and Liberato investigated, they allegedly saw two men removing lug nuts from a 2016 Cadillac Escalade, but the duo fled when they noticed the officers.

Police said canine officer Michael Cassidy and Thor arrested the alleged perpetrators, 38-year-old Lake Grove resident Steven Hall and 51-year-old Lake Ronkonkoma resident Joseph Stoddard, a short time later.

Hall and Stoddard were charged with third-degree attempted grand larceny, third-degree auto stripping and possession of burglary tools.

Attorney information for the defendants was not immediately available.

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Port Jefferson is fighting to keep property tax revenue flowing from the power plant and to prevent restrictions from being lifted on peaker unit output. File photo by Lee Lutz

The Port Jefferson school district has climbed aboard a lawsuit against the Long Island Power Authority that challenges the utility’s efforts to reduce its property taxes at North Shore power plants.

LIPA has been working for the last several years to significantly reduce taxes at the aging Port Jefferson and Northport plants, saying the facilities are grossly over-assessed and force the utility to pay more in property taxes than it should. But the school board voted on Nov. 24 to join a lawsuit filed by the Town of Huntington and the Northport-East Northport school district that disputes LIPA’s legal right to file its tax challenges, claiming they are a breach of contract.

That argument stems from a 1997 letter from former LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel, in which Kessel said the utility would not file property tax challenges in the future “on any of their respective properties at any time in the future unless a municipality abusively increases its assessment rate.”

The “respective properties” referenced include the Port Jefferson and Northport power plants, which are owned and operated by energy company National Grid. That company sells the energy it produces to the Long Island utility.

In Port Jefferson, the power plant’s property taxes provide much support to the school district, accounting for almost half of its budget, making the potential loss of that revenue a serious issue for the district.

The Port Jefferson Village government is in a similar position, funding about one-third of its budget with power plant taxes. Smaller stakeholders include the Port Jefferson fire and library districts and the Town of Brookhaven.

In an announcement posted on its website last week, the Port Jefferson school district said, “Our decision to join this lawsuit is a necessary step to protect the resources of our school district and the financial stability of our taxpayers.”

Before the Port Jefferson school district joined the lawsuit, LIPA had filed a motion to dismiss it, but New York State’s highest court denied that motion earlier this year and allowed the case to move forward.

At that time, a LIPA spokesperson said the utility does not comment on ongoing litigation.

After the utility’s motion to dismiss was denied — representing a small victory for those fighting LIPA’s tax challenges — Port Jefferson Village filed a separate lawsuit in September that alleges the same breach of contract as the schools’ lawsuit. Village Attorney Brian Egan requested that court action on LIPA’s tax challenges, which are still pending in the court system, be delayed until the new lawsuits are resolved.

If the plaintiffs win their arguments, the pending tax challenges would be thrown out.

According to Egan, however, the lawsuits are now facing a new motion to dismiss, this time from National Grid.

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Sabelo Ndala mugshot from SCPD

A motorcyclist was killed on Saturday afternoon when a young man who was allegedly on drugs crashed a car into his bike.

Two days after Thanksgiving, the Suffolk County Police Department said, 56-year-old Thomas Heissen Buttel was riding a 1972 Harley-Davidson north on Old Town Road when he was struck by a vehicle whose driver had been trying to make a left onto Hyson Way in Coram, just south of Hawkins Road.

The motorcyclist, a South Setauket resident, died from his injuries at Stony Brook University Hospital, police said, while the driver of the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta that struck him, 22-year-old Port Jefferson Station resident Sabelo Ndala, was not hurt.

Police charged Ndala with driving while impaired by drugs, operating a vehicle without an interlock device and second-degree aggravated unlicensed driving. He was arraigned the next day.

The suspect is listed as defending himself in the New York State court system’s online database and could not be reached for comment.

According to the database, Ndala had a previous drunk driving charge against him, dating back to February, to which he pleaded guilty. His license was revoked for 18 months in that case and he was mandated to use an interlock device on his vehicle, which prevents the car from operating unless a sober person breathes into the device, for three years.

After Saturday’s crash, police impounded both the Jetta and the Harley-Davidson for safety checks.

Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to call detectives from the SCPD’s Vehicular Crime Unit at 631-852-6555.

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Danielle Wisnieski mugshot from SCPD

Police allege a pregnant woman was on drugs when she overturned and crashed her car in Kings Park the night before Thanksgiving.

The 26-year-old, Danielle Wisnieski, who is also 26 weeks pregnant, according to the Suffolk County Police Department, was driving north on Indian Head Road at the time of the crash. Police said she lost control of the vehicle, a 2003 Cadillac Escalade, near the intersection with Old Northport Road and overturned just after 8 p.m.

Paramedics treated her at the scene, police said, and administered Narcan, a medication that is used to block the effects of opioids like heroin and Vicodin and is commonly used to reverse overdoses.

The driver, a Kings Park resident, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The passenger in her car, a 34-year-old Kings Park resident, was treated for minor injuries as well at Huntington Hospital.

No other cars were involved in the crash.

Wisnieski was arrested and charged with driving while impaired by drugs.

Attorney information for the suspect was not immediately available, and she was scheduled to be arraigned at a later date.

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A car trudges up East Broadway in the 1924 hill climb on Thanksgiving. Photo above from village archive

Thanksgiving is a time for family, food, football — and a car race?

An antique car makes its way during the Hill Climb at Port Jefferson's Heritage Weekend. Photo by Bob Savage
An antique car makes its way during the Hill Climb at Port Jefferson’s Heritage Weekend. Photo by Bob Savage

Turkey Day has its traditions, and for Port Jefferson one year in the Roaring ‘20s those included a hill-climbing contest. On the holiday in 1924, according to the Port Jefferson Village historical archive, automobiles raced up the steep hill of East Broadway, from the Newcomb Brothers Garage to the entrance of Belle Terre at Cliff Road.

Hill climbs up East Broadway had become a regular affair in the village, after the Automobile Club of Port Jefferson held its first one in June 1910. And contemporary Port Jefferson residents have experienced the fun, too — the village recreated the hill climb during its Heritage Weekend in August, sending antique and otherwise unique cars revving up the road. Some people got decked out in Victorian-era garb for the occasion.

The year of the Thanksgiving hill climb was a special one for New Yorkers in another way: The event was held on the same day one famous department store held its first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the city.

Port Jefferson Village had a completely different look in that era: The fire department headquarters was sandwiched between shops on Main Street, Port Jefferson High School was at its old location on Spring Street under the direction of supervising principal Earl L. Vandermeulen, and the harbor was being mined for sand.

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File photo

A teenager on a motorbike was injured Tuesday when he was hit by a sedan that then fled the scene, according to police.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 18-year-old Kyle Fiore was riding east on Jamaica Drive in Sound Beach when a sedan, which had been traveling south on Deer Drive, struck him shortly before 5 p.m.

The sedan, described as light-colored, fled the scene. Police said Fiore, a Sound Beach resident, was treated at Stony Brook University Hospital for a broken femur — the thigh bone — and other non-life-threatening injuries.

Police impounded the motorbike for a safety check.

Detectives from the 7th Squad are investigating the crash. Anyone with information is asked to call them at 631-852-8752, or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-220-TIPS.

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File photo

A Hauppauge woman was arrested for drunk driving early Tuesday morning after her car collided with a county vehicle, injuring both her and the other driver.

The Suffolk County Police Department said Michael Maxwell, a district attorney investigator, was driving a county-owned 2008 Ford Explorer east on Route 347 shortly after 1 a.m. when he collided with a 2004 Toyota Sequoia that had been going south on Mount Pleasant Road. After crashing with the Ford, the Toyota struck a building on Mount Pleasant.

Police did not specify which driver caused the crash.

Maxwell, 52, was pinned inside the Ford, police said, and Emergency Services Section officers extricated him. Both he and the Toyota’s driver, 20-year-old Amanda Dellegar, were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Stony Brook University Hospital.

Police arrested Dellegar and charged her with driving while intoxicated.

Attorney information for the defendant was not immediately available. Police said she would be arraigned at a later date.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the SCPD’s Vehicular Crime Unit detectives at 631-852-6555.

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A fireball erupts during a demonstration on the dangers of deep-frying a turkey in hot oil. Photo from Brookhaven Town

Brookhaven Town officials held a fiery presentation on Nov. 20 to demonstrate the dangers of deep-frying a turkey in hot oil.

According to a press release from the town, the trend is a growing one that is responsible for several deaths and dozens of injuries every year.

The hot oil can splash or spill, causing severe burns.

“The fireball that we saw during the demonstration clearly showed how the improper use of turkey fryers can lead to personal injury and the destruction of property,” Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) said in a statement. “I hope that people who use deep fryers follow all the manufacturer’s safety instructions and keep a fire extinguisher handy.”

Romaine and the town’s chief fire marshal, Chris Mehrman, held the demonstration on the Friday ahead of Thanksgiving.

The supervisor also announced that this holiday season the town would accept waste oil, which is used to create biodiesel fuel, at the town landfill on Horseblock Road in Brookhaven hamlet.

Last year, the town accepted more than 350 gallons of used cooking oil after Thanksgiving, according to the press release.

The landfill is open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday, from 7 a.m. to noon.

For Thanksgiving fire safety tips, visit the National Fire Protection Association at www.nfpa.org.

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