Old Homestead Road is one street in northern Port Jefferson ready for repaving after a harsh winter beat them up. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Following a snowy winter that punished local streets, leaving numerous potholes, Port Jefferson is kicking off the paving season with a few village roads that are in particularly poor condition.
The board of trustees approved Old Homestead Road and the adjacent Landing Lane, Cove Lane, Chips Court and the northern half of Sands Lane for repaving at its business meeting Monday night. The village is contracting with Suffolk Paving Corp. to redo the roads, at a total cost of almost $285,000.
Sands Lane is one street in northern Port Jefferson ready for repaving after a harsh winter beat them up. Photo by Elana Glowatz
“They are beyond — Old Homestead is in real bad shape,” Mayor Margot Garant said. “Sands Lane, Cove Lane, Landing [Lane] and Chips [Court] are completely falling apart.”
The roads are scheduled to be milled down on Thursday, with paving to follow a few days later, on April 13-14.
“It’ll be good to get some of these roads done,” Trustee Larry LaPointe said.
Though the five streets approved Monday will be the first in the village to get some TLC, they will not be the last — the board also approved a $25,000 transfer for the public works department from its storm sewer expenses to its street maintenance fund to help repair roads.
The section around Old Homestead is “in desperate need of paving” but village employees “will be working on additional roads using their own equipment, so the paving doesn’t stop there,” Garant said during the public forum portion of Monday’s meeting.
Pedestrians, like drivers, will see improvements during paving season — Garant said the village will be repairing sidewalks as well, including one on the frequently traversed Arden Place, which has municipal parking lots on either side.
Port Jefferson Station resident unopposed for election
The Comsewogue library. File photo
Comsewogue library district residents can expect to pay a few dollars more in taxes next year, if voters approve the proposed 2015-16 budget.
The budget, which would total $5.58 million, represents a 2 percent increase over the current year’s spending plan, according to figures in the library’s community brochure. Despite the budget total, Port Jefferson Station and Terryville residents would only be funding about half of that amount in taxes, as the tax levy would just reach about $2.7 million.
In the spending plan, staff and mandated expenses would increase, but that would largely be due to the structure of the year — Library Director Debra Engelhardt said employees are paid biweekly and while that usually means 26 payroll cycles during the year, next year there will be an extra cycle. That extra payroll affects both the salary budget line and the lines for retirement, health care and other mandated costs.
Library material and program costs would slightly decrease next year.
“Over the last few years, we’ve been tracking our spending,” Engelhardt explained. In part by analyzing what sorts of materials residents request from Comsewogue and from other public libraries in the county — as the public libraries share their collections — library officials have “sort of honed the number” for that budget line.
Comsewogue’s budget for library materials decreased between last year and this year as well, and that was also through more efficient budgeting.
Corinne DeStefano is unopposed for a term on the library board of trustees. Photo from the candidate
“We’ve just gradually been able to bring it down,” the library director said.
But all of the library’s programming will continue next year, and Engelhardt said the staff is even experimenting with different types of programs.
“I think people are going to see a little diversity” in the programs, she said.
Under the proposed budget, the tax rate would increase to about $12.43 for every $100 of assessed value. For the average home valued at $3,000 that translates to almost an $11 increase in library taxes for the year.
Voting is at the library on Terryville Road on Tuesday, April 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Those who hit the polls will also be able to cast a ballot for Port Jefferson Station resident Corinne DeStefano, who is running unopposed for a five-year term on the library board, to begin on July 1. She will take the place of former library board Vice President Chris Keegan, who recently resigned with just a few months left in his term because he moved out of the district.
DeStefano, who is married to Comsewogue school board trustee Robert DeStefano, has lived in the district her entire life. The couple has two kids, ages 6 and 2, and the wife works in quality assurance for software corporation CA Technologies.
“We think it’s important to give back” and make sure Port Jefferson Station “stays a great community,” she said.
DeStefano chose to focus on the library because it’s a place close to her heart, after growing up a few blocks away and walking there often with her mother to check out “massive amounts of books to read.”
“I’m interested in making sure that something I’ve always felt is really great … continues to evolve with the times and continues to be a great resource for the community.”
Some residents concerned as village votes to allow larger budget increase
Port Jeff Village is asking residents to use the online parking sticker portal. File photo by Elana Glowatz
Port Jefferson Village officials have a green light to override the state’s cap on its tax levy next year, if necessary.
The board of trustees voted 4-1, with Trustee Bruce Miller dissenting, to allow themselves to pierce the cap — as the group has done each year since the state law restricting tax levy increases was enacted.
In the next budget cycle, the village has a 1.68 percent state-imposed cap on its tax levy increase, according to Treasurer Don Pearce. But tentative budget figures would increase the levy — and thus taxes — by 4 percent.
The latter increase would translate to the average Port Jefferson homeowner paying about $37 more next year in village property taxes.
During a public hearing on the matter Monday night, a few residents railed against the prospect of busting through the cap.
“This is just not tolerable,” Molly Mason said about tax increases.
And Matthew Franco pointed to what he saw as wasteful expenditures, such as what the village spent on exploring uses for the Port Jefferson marina, which it had hoped to purchase from Brookhaven Town before the deal fell through. He spoke against the officials’ idea “to come to us and say, ‘Look, we want to go over the cap again.’”
According to Pearce, the tentative budget totals almost $10.3 million. In order to meet the levy cap, instead of piercing it, the village would have to shave more than $140,000 in expenses or bring up revenues that amount.
Mayor Margot Garant said the board would work to reduce that sum, what she called a “gap.” She also noted that the village uses $400,000 from its fund balance each year to keep down resident taxes, a measure she said the village would take again next year.
During recent budget workshops, the board has pored over budget lines, slashing more than $300,000 in proposed expenses. The trustees have also contended with increases in mandated expenditures.
“I don’t know many businesses that go year to year with only a 1.68 percent increase in expenditures,” Trustee Larry LaPointe said. “If you’ve got a union contract, which we do, and there are built-in increases to all your employees’ salaries in that union contract, you’re going to have budget increases unless you fire people and reduce services.”
He added that he did not think there would be resident support for reducing services.
The village will hold a public hearing on a finalized 2015-16 budget on April 15.
Code Chief Wally Tomaszewski helps honor officer Paul Barbato on Monday night. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Port Jefferson officials and residents honored a village code officer on Monday night after he helped save another man’s life while on duty.
On March 15, Paul Barbato was working in the village when a call came in of an unconscious man who was not breathing and was slouched over a table at Grumpy Jack’s sports bar and grill on Oakland Avenue in upper Port, according to Mayor Margot Garant. Barbato responded and found the victim did not have a pulse.
“Barbato lowered him to the floor and initiated chest compressions and rescue breathing,” Garant said.
At that point, a Suffolk County police officer made it to the scene with a defibrillator and the pair got the man breathing again. Garant said an ambulance transported the man, who survived the incident, to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital.
The mayor presented Barbato, who was hired in 2012, with a certificate of appreciation during the board of trustees meeting on Monday, to much applause from the crowd of residents in attendance.
According to code bureau Chief Wally Tomaszewski, Barbato was originally trained as a park ranger and when he’s not working in village code enforcement, he transports criminals who are being removed from the U.S., to places as far away as Asia, Europe and North Africa or as close as Canada.
“So when you see a guy aboard an airplane, he’s got somebody with him with a set of handcuffs on, the other guy with the tie is Paul.”
Tomaszewski also said Barbato is tough and when residents see him walking Main Street, they should shake hands with him, “and you’ll notice that he has a hand like a rock. Nobody would dare mess with him.”
But in addition to muscle, he also brings a passion for the job.
“One thing I love about seeing you in the village is you always stop and you say hi and you say how much you love working here,” Garant said to Barbato.
The officer did the same for the audience, saying, “I think this is just one of the nicest places you can get up in the morning and come to work.”
Upon receiving the certificate, he said, “You spoil me here.”
“You saved somebody’s life,” the mayor interjected. “That’s a big deal.”
A driver crashed into a pole and a tree while trying to evade police on Saturday, seriously injuring herself, authorities said.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, a 3rd Precinct officer attempted to pull over Alyssa Leppert in a cul-de-sac on Kurt Lane in Hauppauge at about 4:40 p.m., after observing her driving a Chevy TrailBlazer erratically. However, police said, Leppert attempted to get away from the officer by driving on the lawns of multiple houses, causing damage to several lawns, in order to get back onto Route 111.
A few minutes later, police said, Leppert was driving north on Route 111 and lost control of the Chevy, struck a telephone pole, and then hit a tree about 20 yards south of Route 347. The SUV came to a stop at the intersection of Route 111 and Veterans Memorial Highway.
Leppert, a 22-year-old East Northport resident, was in critical condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.
Detectives are investigating the incident.
Leppert has previous, unrelated charges pending against her, including attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance. Attorney information for the defendant was not available.
Rob Marianetti is raising money to help fund his daughter Kayla’s care. Photo by Elana Glowatz
A smile, a swallow or a step mean a lot to Rob Marianetti.
It was not long ago that his daughter was unresponsive, following a bathtime incident, and doctors told him there was no hope she would get better. But Marianetti isn’t giving up on Kayla, and coming up on her third birthday she can make some sounds and move her arms and legs.
“I’ve been on a mission to get my daughter back,” he said.
When she was 17 months old, while Marianetti was at work — for Setauket-based Hurricane Tree Experts — Kayla was having a bath in her Port Jefferson Station home and was left unattended for eight minutes, the father said. She was found floating and unresponsive.
Marianetti rushed to the hospital to see Kayla while doctors were working on her. He said he was trying to get into the room with her and was banging on a door to the point where a police officer had to intervene. He learned a few weeks later, he said, that his daughter came back to life while he was banging.
“She was blue and she was done. She was done — and she came back.”
Kayla spent time at St. Charles Hospital and Stony Brook University Hospital, and Marianetti and his wife — who is no longer “in the picture,” he said — got the little girl started on different therapies right away, so she would not deteriorate.
Rob Marianetti is raising money to help fund his daughter Kayla’s care. Above, Kayla before her bathtime accident. Photo from Rob Marianetti
The whole time Kayla was in the hospital, Marianetti never left her side, the father’s aunt, Susan Calvi, said: “Slept there every day.”
Out of all the nation’s experts Marianetti saw, he said, just one, neurologist Dr. Chris Sinclair at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, encouraged him to fight.
Sinclair said he’s seen a similar case of brain injury before, in which a child was perhaps even worse off than Kayla in the beginning but after a couple of years was walking and talking.
“So I’ve seen it before but I also know how flexible, in a sense, the brain of a young child is.”
Sinclair explained that there are connections between brain cells that allow the cells to communicate with one another, and in Kayla those have become damaged. But those connections can be regrown in a developing brain.
“When someone’s so young, [the future] is a lot brighter than it would be for someone who is an adult because the brain is still developing,” Sinclair said. “I think the sky’s the limit for her.”
Kayla has multiple therapy appointments each day, whether it’s hyperbaric therapy, which involves putting her in an oxygen-rich environment; physical therapy, to move her toward sitting up, standing and walking; vision therapy, as neurological issues have made her legally blind, even though her eyes themselves are fine; or speech therapy, which is used both to teach her to communicate and to eat on her own.
“By me doing all this stuff, it’s friggin’ working, man,” Marianetti said. Kayla has stood up, laughed, swallowed a small amount of pudding and taken a few steps. “Now remember, she couldn’t move a year ago. … I have hope.”
One big hurdle for Marianetti, however, is money. He’s gone through his savings, he said, and Kayla’s therapy appointments cost $8,000 a month. Then there’s other medical costs, as well as living expenses like food, diapers and electricity.
The treatments are expensive, the dad said, but “how can I not continue what I’m doing when she’s making progress?”
He set up a fundraising page, at www.gofundme.com/n19qgc, to ask for help. As of Wednesday morning, the fund had reached $18,000.
His goal is to have Kayla at least be able to walk, talk, eat and see on her own.
“I’m not leaving her like this,” Marianetti said. “I’m going until either she gets better or I die.”
Police say officers arrested a Centerport woman who was driving drunk with her daughter in the car.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, the 2nd Precinct officers were responding at about 6 p.m. on April 2 to a witness report that the driver of a 2014 Volkswagen Passat in a parking lot on Larkfield Road in East Northport was drunk.
The officers determined that the driver, 45-year-old Jamie Wieser, was “under the influence of alcohol,” police said in a media release. Her 11-year-old daughter was in the car with her.
Wieser was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child passenger 15 or younger — under Leandra’s Law — and with endangering the welfare of a child.
Attorney information for Wieser was not available. She was scheduled to be arraigned on April 3.
A pedestrian was killed in a crash with a federal vehicle while walking along the highway on Wednesday night.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, the man had been walking west on the Long Island Expressway, west of Exit 49 for Route 110 in Melville, at 10:30 p.m. when a U.S. Postal Service tractor trailer hit him.
After notifying his family, police later identified the pedestrian as 52-year-old Melville resident Stephen Puleo.
The truck’s driver, Northport resident Russell A. Davenport, 62, was not hurt, remained at the scene and attempted to assist Puleo.
A physician assistant from the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office pronounced Puleo dead at the scene.
Police also performed a safety check on the vehicle at the scene.
Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to call the SCPD’s 2nd Squad, whose detectives are investigating the case, at 631-854-8252. All calls will remain confidential.
Police say a man dressed in women’s clothing robbed a Smithtown bank on April Fool’s Day.
The man entered the TD Bank on Nesconset Highway around 4 p.m. on Wednesday and displayed a note that said he had a gun and demanded cash, the Suffolk County Police Department said. The teller gave the man an undetermined amount of cash.
The suspect fled west from the bank, police said, possibly in a light-colored vehicle.
Detectives from the SCPD’s Pattern Crime Unit are investigating the robbery. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Police say two people charged with a hate crime on Monday afternoon targeted elderly people, pretending to collect donations for a church before committing burglary.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, officers from the 2nd Precinct responded to a 911 call about the suspects posing as church representatives to gain access to an elderly woman’s apartment in Paumanack Village in Greenlawn, then stealing property from her.
Police officers Frank Muoio and Todd Regan found suspects Heather Marchese, 23, and Sean DiStefano, a 24-year-old Shoreham resident, within the apartment complex and arrested them. Both were charged with second-degree burglary as a hate crime. Marchese, who is homeless, was also charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and possession of a hypodermic instrument.
Marchese and DiStefano, who both had other unrelated charges already pending against them, including criminal possession and traffic law violations, were listed on the New York State court system’s online database as representing themselves and could not be reached for comment.
Police said an investigation — by 2nd Squad detectives and the Hate Crimes Unit — has indicated that there may be other victims, and that the suspects targeted the elderly.
Anyone who may have been a target in the scheme is asked to call the Hate Crimes Unit at 631-852-6323.
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