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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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Demolition at the Heritage Inn motel in Port Jefferson gets underway on May 17. Photo by Elana Glowatz

By Elana Glowatz

Smashes and gashes, scraps to dust.

Officials started to take down the decrepit Heritage Inn motel in downtown Port Jefferson on Tuesday morning, sending sledgehammers into a glass window and dropping an excavator’s arm onto the roof of one structure on the West Broadway site.

It was the first step toward new construction at the spot, where TRITEC Real Estate Company is putting up a 112-unit apartment building with parking underneath the structure, near the intersection with Barnum Avenue.

Bob Coughlan swings a sledgehammer into glass at the Heritage Inn motel, the blighted Port Jefferson site where his real estate company is building apartments. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Bob Coughlan swings a sledgehammer into glass at the Heritage Inn motel, the blighted Port Jefferson site where his real estate company is building apartments. Photo by Elana Glowatz

Previously called the Residences at Port Jefferson, TRITEC’s Bob Coughlan said on Tuesday that the apartments will be called “The Shipyard.” He estimated the project would be completed in 20 months.

“We’re thrilled to add to the vibrancy of the community,” said Coughlan, a TRITEC principal who lives in Port Jefferson.

He and Mayor Margot Garant did the honors in the ceremonial demolition, with both taking sledgehammers to a glass window in the attendant’s booth toward the front of the property before Garant got behind the controls of an excavator and sent its arm down hard into the roof of that booth, crushing everything underneath it to cheers from onlookers.

“We had the honor of taking the first bite out of the building and it was very cathartic,” she said afterward, noting that she was still shaking from the experience.

More demolition was scheduled to occur on the property later in the week, with a groundbreaking on the three-story luxury apartment building in June.

According to the plans approved by the Port Jefferson Planning Board, there will be 42 one-bedroom apartments and 70 two-bedroom, and the building will take up less than half of the 3.74-acre property to leave room for landscaping and buffers. The project did not require any variances or special exceptions from the village.

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File photo by Bob Savage

Residents and visitors can rent stand-up paddle boards at the Port Jefferson Village Center until October.

The village board of trustees recently approved East Main Street business Sunpaddle to provide rentals of the watersport boards at the harborfront park next to the community center off East Broadway this summer, after a trial period last year.

Sunpaddle is located on East Main Street. File photo
Sunpaddle is located on East Main Street. File photo

According to the board, the rentals will be available seven days a week, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., from May 28 to Sept. 5.

From that point through Oct. 1, the rentals would be on weekends only, but during the same business hours.

In an interview during last year’s trial period, village recreation director Renee Lemmerman had called it another way of “providing services for our residents to really use their harborfront” and a good way for families to exercise at the beach.

The system will benefit the village as well as Sunpaddle — according to the board, the village will receive 40 percent of the revenue from the rentals.

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Donor Robert Frey shakes hands with the Suffolk Sharks mascot. Photo from Suffolk County Community College

A Belle Terre resident opened his wallet to give back to his alma mater last week, donating $1 million to Suffolk County Community College.

Robert Frey, through his Frey Family Foundation, made the gift as the college honored him during its annual Salute to Excellence Gala on May 5, for the foundation’s contributions to SCCC. The college said it was the largest gift from a graduate in its 58-year history.

“I tend to not do these things in the way that gets attention,” Frey said in a phone interview on Monday. But he said he thought the action would “trigger other people” to support the college.

SCCC President Shaun L. McKay, left, orders a $1 million check be unveiled. Photo from Suffolk County Community College
SCCC President Shaun L. McKay, left, orders a $1 million check be unveiled. Photo from Suffolk County Community College

Frey is a research professor at Stony Brook University and the director of its quantitative finance program, within the applied mathematics and statistics department, among other positions at SBU. He is also a businessman, serving as CEO of international investment management firm FQS Capital Partners Ltd. and of his family office, Harbor Financial Management.

He graduated from the college in 1978. His wife Kathy and daughter Megan also graduated from SCCC. After Suffolk, Frey went on to Stony Brook University, where he eventually earned a doctorate in applied mathematics.

“I never would have gotten started without Suffolk,” he said, which is why he wanted to give back.

He grew up in Brooklyn, a “lower middle class Irish-American whose access to education at a price he could afford changed his life.”

He said he hopes the $1 million will be used for capital improvements and scholarships, but he specifically “didn’t want to put too many restrictions on this” because he trusts the college officials’ judgment.

The donor “recognizes the transformative value of his foundation’s contribution and the impact it will have on the lives of our students,” college President Shaun L. McKay said in a statement. “We cannot thank him enough for his generosity and commitment to our institution.”

Frey’s name is familiar to more than just the Suffolk and SBU campus communities — he was previously a member of the Port Jefferson school board, before resigning in 2011 for health reasons. He was also once on the Mount Sinai school board when he lived in that community.

Donor Robert Frey signs the ceremonial check. Photo from Suffolk County Community College
Donor Robert Frey signs the ceremonial check. Photo from Suffolk County Community College

He has worked for his community in other ways as well.

The community college said he has also served on the boards of the nonprofit volunteer safety group The Alliance of Guardian Angels; the Port Jefferson-based nonprofit Hope House Ministries; the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City; the Suffolk Community College Foundation; and the Stony Brook Foundation.

This isn’t the first time the Frey Family Foundation has donated a large sum to a local institution — it has previously given to both Stony Brook University and John T. Mather Memorial Hospital.

In the case of Suffolk Community and why it deserved support, Frey stressed that the courses are high-caliber and the college cares about its students, many of whom would not have had access to advanced education or training without it.

“It does meet the needs of so many people,” he said. “There are probably few things … where your money is going to be used more effectively than in education.”

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By Elana Glowatz

Desperate times call for desperate budget measures.

For the first time in four years, a northern Suffolk County school district is taking aim at its tax levy cap, looking to bust through that state budget ceiling as more districts around New York do the same in tight times.

The New York State School Boards Association said the number of school districts seeking a supermajority of voter approval — 60 percent — to override their caps has doubled since last year. The group blames that trend on inflation.

tax-cap-graphicwThe state cap limits the amount a school district or municipality can increase its tax levy, which is the total amount collected in taxes, from budget to budget. While commonly referred to as a “2 percent tax cap,” it actually limits levy increases to 2 percent or the rate of inflation — whichever is lower — before certain excluded spending, like on capital projects and pension payments.

This year, the rate of inflation was calculated at just 0.12 percent and, after other calculations, the statewide average for an allowed tax levy increase will be 0.7 percent, according to NYSSBA.

“The quirks and vagaries of the cap formula mean it can fluctuate widely from year to year and district to district,” Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer said in a statement.

More school districts are feeling the pressure — a NYSSBA poll showed that 36 districts will ask voters to pass budgets that pop through their caps, double the number last year.

It may be easier said than done: Since the cap was enacted, typically almost half of proposed school district budgets that have tried to bust through it have failed at the polls. That’s compared to budgets that only needed a simple majority of support, which have passed 99 percent of the time since the cap started.

In 2012, the first year for the cap in schools, five districts on Suffolk’s North Shore sought to override it, including Mount Sinai, Comsewogue, Three Village, Rocky Point and Middle Country. Only the latter two were approved, forcing the others to craft new budget proposals and hold a second vote.

Middle Country barely squeaked by, with 60.8 percent of the community approving that budget, and Comsewogue just missed its target, falling shy by only 33 votes.

Numbers from the school boards’ association that year showed that more Long Island school districts had tried to exceed their caps and more budgets had failed than in any other region in the state.

But four years later, Harborfields school district is taking a shot.

Officials there adopted a budget that would increase its tax levy 1.52 percent next year, adding full-day kindergarten, a new high school music elective and a BOCES cultural arts program, among others. Harborfields board member Hansen Lee was “optimistic” that at least 60 percent of the Harborfields community would approve the budget.

“We’re Harborfields; we always come together for the success of our kids and the greater good,” Lee said.

The school boards’ association speculated that more school districts than just Harborfields would have tried to pierce their levy caps if not for a statewide boost in aid — New York State’s own budget increased school aid almost $25 billion, with $3 billion of that going specifically to Long Island.

Now that New York school districts have settled into the cap, Long Islanders’ eyes are on Harborfields, to see whether it becomes an example of changing tides.

Next Tuesday, Harborfields will see if it has enough public support to go where few Long Island districts have ever gone before, above and beyond the tax levy cap.

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Ellen Michelmore was the musical director at Theatre Three. File photo

Ellen Michelmore, who served as the Theatre Three musical director for more than 25 years, died early Friday morning, the theater said on its Facebook page. She was 63.

Since her start with a production of “Evita” in 1986, Michelmore worked with hundreds of actors and musicians at the theater in her hometown of Port Jefferson. Even through a few battles with leiomyosarcoma, a cancer that infects muscle tissue, Michelmore was known for her energy and for giving her all, and was named a Port Times Record Person of the Year in 2014.

Ellen Michelmore was the musical director at Theatre Three. File photo
Ellen Michelmore was the musical director at Theatre Three. File photo

“She is a craftsperson, an artist, a teacher and a mentor,” Theatre Three Executive Director Jeffrey Sanzel said at that time. He quoted composer Jerry Herman to describe her style: “‘Someone puts themselves last, so that you can come first.’ That is Ellen.”

People who knew her have called her generous, patient, kind, strong and remarkable. And she made a mean Bolognese sauce.

“I don’t think there was a single person who ever came across her who didn’t love her,” Sanzel said in a phone interview on Friday. “And I’m not one to use superlatives [but] she was an extraordinary human being, she was an artist, but just the depth of her love and compassion and sensitivity were unlike anyone we’ve ever had in this theater family, and her loss will be felt forever.”

As the lead of Theatre Three’s music department, Michelmore touched both audiences and staff.

Musician Michael Chiusano said people who worked with her respected and appreciated her honesty: “If your part is not prepared, she will tell you where you stand,” he said previously.

Ellen Michelmore as a young child. File photo
Ellen Michelmore as a young child. File photo

And Broadway actress and singer Amy Justman, who began working with Michelmore as a 10-year-old in 1989, said the music director was “kind and giving but tough.”

“I had never seen a woman like Ellen,” she said when Michelmore was named a Person of the Year. “She sent me on a path. … I have a lifelong connection to her and am so grateful for her.”

Michelmore played such a big role in the Theatre Three community that the theater honored her with a musical tribute in 2014, called “Ellen Michelmore: Notes From The Heart,” that featured singers, actors and musicians who had worked with her.

Michelmore is survived by her husband, Jeff Lange, who is also a musician. He has previously noted, “Ellen’s passion has been her job ever since she arrived at Theatre Three.”

Her presence is not something that will soon be forgotten at the theater. Sanzel said Friday, “In all that she’s been through in these last five years, her bravery was extraordinary and she never stopped loving all the people around her.”

Funeral arrangements had not yet been made early Friday afternoon.

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Roosevelt Avenue’s park is tucked away in the woods. A path leads from the road to the field, which is next to the railroad track. Photo by Elana Glowatz

A hidden park in the corner of Port Jefferson could soon expand, as village officials line up paperwork on a few small properties they were supposed to take ownership of 45 years ago.

Roosevelt Park, tucked away at the end of a grassy path beyond Roosevelt Avenue in the village’s southwestern corner, is as big as the ball field it contains — but it was meant to be larger. A corporation that built houses in the village in the 1970s, as a condition of project approval, was supposed to give three parcels on the western side of Roosevelt Avenue, opposite the ball field, to the village for recreational use. It was also supposed to contribute $5,000 to the village so it could acquire a fourth piece of land, which is pinned between the existing park, the three adjacent parcels and the Long Island Rail Road track that borders the park’s southern end.

But the deed transaction was never completed, although no taxes have been paid on the group of three parcels since the 1970s, according to Port Jefferson Village Attorney Brian Egan.

Roosevelt Avenue’s park is tucked away in the woods. A path leads from the road to the field, which is next to the railroad track. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Roosevelt Avenue’s park is tucked away in the woods. A path leads from the road to the field, which is next to the railroad track. Photo by Elana Glowatz

The village board of trustees, in a legal action at a board meeting on Monday night, called the discrepancy a “scrivener error.”

It is not clear what happened to the $5,000; the village does not own the fourth piece of land either.

At the meeting, the trustees gave Mayor Margot Garant authorization to record three quitclaim deeds, which would transfer the titles of the properties to the village.

Egan said he has spoken to the family of the construction corporation’s owner, who has since died, and “they don’t want to have anything to do with this property.”

The fourth piece of land might be a little trickier — property taxes have been paid on that lot, and Egan said the village might have to acquire the sliver through eminent domain, an action in which a municipality claims private property for a public benefit and compensates the owner.

When combined with the existing Roosevelt Park, the land could make a spot larger than 2 acres, Garant said at a previous meeting. She has also said that she would like to see the expanded spot become a “dedicated space for peewee programs,” because older players sometimes dominate the Caroline Avenue ball field up the road.

While the mayor had said she doesn’t want to impact the surrounding residences, in the village neighborhood off Old Post Road known as the “presidential section,” she had suggested adding some parking at Roosevelt Park.

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Cesar Moncada mugshot from SCPD

By Elana Glowatz

Police have arrested two teenage stepbrothers in connection with one of the three shootings that took place in Huntington Station over the course of three days in late April.

Cesar Moncada mugshot from SCPD
Cesar Moncada mugshot from SCPD

The Suffolk County Police Department alleged on Thursday that 18-year-old Jonattan Canales and 19-year-old Cesar Moncada, who live in the same Tower Street home, shot a man in the foot while he was walking through the Long Island Rail Road commuter lot off New York Avenue.

When that shooting occurred on the night of April 23, police said 20-year-old Jose Jurado was walking in the lot when someone stepped out of a vehicle, pointed a gun at him and fired. Jurado, of Huntington Station, fled and made it to the 7-Eleven at New York Avenue and Depot Road, where another person called 911. The victim was treated at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

Detectives have charged Canales and Moncada with first-degree assault. They were scheduled to be arraigned on May 5 and attorney information was not immediately available.

Jonattan Canales mugshot from SCPD
Jonattan Canales mugshot from SCPD

According to the New York State court system’s online database, both the men have other charges pending against them: Canales for possession of a forged instrument and moving traffic violations, including unlicensed driving; and Moncada for criminal possession of marijuana and criminal possession of a weapon, for a loaded firearm.

The night of Jurado’s shooting was an active one for Huntington Station. About two hours after that incident, several shots were fired toward a home on East 6th Street, between Fairground Avenue and Lenox Road. Police said at the time that two friends were standing in the driveway when shots were fired in the house’s direction, with several of them hitting the home. Other bullets, police said, hit a vehicle in the driveway of the house next-door, where a child was asleep in the back seat.

The 8-year-old child was not hurt.

A few days later, several shots were fired near 10th Avenue. Officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation on that block, between Craven and West 15th streets. Five men who were standing in front of a home on the residential street reported hearing gunshots and seeing flashes of light, police said, but did not see anyone firing a gun.

According to police, no injuries were reported but spent bullet casings were found at the scene.

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File photo

By Alex Petroski & Elana Glowatz

Four candidates, no challenges. Both the Comsewogue and Port Jefferson school boards have two seats up for election later this month, but in both school districts, the incumbents are unopposed for re-election.

Rob DeStefano

Rob DeStefano photo from the candidate
Rob DeStefano photo from the candidate

DeStefano was first elected to the Comsewogue Board of Education in 2010. He graduated from Comsewogue High School with the Class of 1996 and joked that he’s been proud to be a part of the community since the day his parents brought him home from the hospital.

“I’m so honored that our community has supported me,” DeStefano said, as he runs unopposed for his third term. “It’s a lot to entrust in a handful of folks to make sure our district is in the right hands. I take this very seriously.”

DeStefano graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business with degrees in business marketing and business management, and a minor in political science. He earned a Master of Business Administration in 2004 from Long Island University. He said he’s spent his whole professional career in technology and is currently a senior product marketing manager for a software company that specializes in mobile connectivity.

DeStefano and his wife have a 7-year-old at Norwood Elementary School and a 3-year-old who will soon be attending Comsewogue schools. DeStefano will be leading the school board’s newly formed public relations committee next year.

Francisca Alabau-Blatter

Francisca Alabau-Blatter file photo
Francisca Alabau-Blatter file photo

Alabau-Blatter did not respond to requests for comment on her run for her third term on the Comsewogue school board.

Originally from Spain, she moved to Long Island at 13 years old. She has three kids in Comsewogue and teaches Spanish in the Central Islip school district. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art education and a master’s degree in computer graphics.

Alabau-Blatter has made comments in the past about her views on standardized testing for students.

“I have little kids and I know what they go through,” she said in an interview after her election for a second term in 2013. “The only goal right now is to do well on this test and it shouldn’t be that way — it should be a well-rounded education.”

She said in 2013 that she was running for a second term because she felt there was still work to be done in the district.

Kathleen Brennan

Kathleen Brennan file photo
Kathleen Brennan file photo

The Port Jefferson school board president and former educator is seeking a third term because “there’s so many pieces still in play in the district, not the least of which is the search for the new superintendent.”

Superintendent Ken Bossert recently announced that this school year would be his last with Port Jefferson, and Brennan said she wants to focus on finding a replacement because “that person helps set the course for where the district goes.”

Brennan, a member of the board’s audit and finance committees and a resident of the district since 1978, noted that all the board members have a good rapport with one another, respecting each other’s opinions.

“There isn’t the kind of … interaction that there once was on the board,” she said. “There was a lot of negative interaction between board members.”

In addition to finding a new superintendent, the president would like to continue work on infrastructure improvements, because improving the campuses “affects morale for everyone in the organization,” including staff and students.

Ellen Boehm

Ellen Boehm file photo
Ellen Boehm file photo

Boehm, a member of the Port Jefferson board’s facilities and audit committees, also noted the superintendent’s departure when discussing her reasons for seeking a third term on the board.

“It’s, I think, good to have people that are familiar with what’s been going on with the school,” she said, “that we remain together” during the change. But she added that she thinks the district has a good administrative team in place, between new principals and other officials, to see everyone through a change in leadership.

Boehm, a Port Jefferson grad herself, was once a teaching assistant in the district.

“I love the community, especially the students here,” she said. “Having spent time at the elementary school, I’m familiar with a good number of the student body. It’s a great place. We should have strong schools.”

Boehm has served four years as a trustee, after being appointed in 2012 and re-elected to a full term the next year. In her third run on the board, she has her sights set on improving school facilities and supporting special education students “so that they’re career-ready.”

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Francis Barrios mugshot from SCPD

A rapist was recently sentenced to 24 years in prison for an assault on a taxi driver this past winter.

Francis Barrios, 34, already a registered sex offender, pleaded guilty in March to raping the female driver after she picked him up one evening at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson.

During the Dec. 1 ride, authorities said, he beat and strangled her, causing the cab to crash into a fence on Mount Sinai-Coram Road in Mount Sinai. Then he sexually assaulted her, pulling her into the back seat and raping her.

Officers responded to the scene after a passing motorist called 911.

The Suffolk County Police Department has not identified the taxi company that the victim worked for, to protect her identity.

Police first identified Barrios as homeless, but the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office has since said he is from Middle Island. He has also been identified by the names Francis Berrios and Francisco Barrios.

The offender pleaded guilty to first-degree rape in late March, and was then sentenced in late April to 24 years incarceration, as well as 20 years of post-release supervision.

Barrios was previously convicted as a violent offender in Suffolk County, for first-degree attempted rape. According to the New York State sex offender registry, where he is listed as a Level 3 sexually violent offender, Barrios was convicted in November 2004 for sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl, who was described as a “non-stranger” to him. He was sentenced to 42 months in state prison for that crime.

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Daryl Richardson mugshot from SCPD

An elderly man had one fracture and a broken bone after being hit by a car in an alleged drunk driving incident Monday afternoon.

According to police, the injured pedestrian, 89-year-old Dix Hills resident Louis Anania, was leaving a McDonald’s restaurant on West Jericho Turnpike in Huntington shortly after 4 p.m. when a westbound Toyota turned left toward the parking lot in front of an eastbound Chevrolet, causing a collision that sent the Chevy off the roadway and into Anania. The man was temporarily pinned between the car and the front of the building.

The Suffolk County Police Department said Anania was treated at Huntington Hospital for a broken collarbone and an open leg fracture.

An open fracture occurs when bone protrudes through a victim’s skin, or when a wound goes deep enough to expose bone.

Police arrested 56-year-old Daryl Richardson, a female Huntington Station resident and the Toyota’s driver, for allegedly driving while intoxicated after being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Huntington Hospital.

Attorney information for Richardson was not immediately available on the New York State court system’s online database.

The Chevrolet driver, Huntington Station man Brian Davila, was also treated for minor injuries at that hospital and was released, police said.

Police impounded both the Toyota and the Chevrolet for safety checks.

Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to call detectives at 631-854-8252.

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