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.

A man in a construction mask robbed a TD Bank on Sunday afternoon, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The man entered the bank on Lake Avenue in St. James shortly after 2:30 p.m. and approached a teller, displaying a note that demanded cash, police said. After the teller complied with the demand, the suspect, who had covered the lower half of his face with the construction mask, fled south on Lake Avenue on foot.

Police further described the robber as white, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and with a medium build, wearing a brown hoodie and blue jeans.

construction-bank-robberw2Major Case Unit detectives are investigating the case.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.

Melissa Buchanan mugshot from SCPD

A woman was charged with animal cruelty after police found a dog dead and several other animals that had not been cared for in her home.

Officers responded to an apartment on Beverly Road in South Huntington on Thursday night after a landlord reported hearing a dog excessively barking and “realizing she had not seen her tenant for a few days,” the Suffolk County Police Department said in a statement. The responders found two miniature Australian shepherd dogs, one of them dead, as well as two lizards and a cat — all of which had not been cared for, police said.

The tenant, 27-year-old Melissa Buchanan, returned while police were at the scene and “admitted to police she had not been home for several days.”

She was charged with six counts of animal cruelty for allegedly abandoning the animals.

Attorney information for Buchanan was not immediately available Friday morning.

Huntington Town’s animal control department took possession of the surviving dog and cat, while the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which worked with the police to bring charges against Buchanan, made arrangements for the lizards.

File photo

A 19-year-old was seriously injured in a crash on Wednesday night while he was trying to cross the street on a bicycle.

The Suffolk County Police Department said the crash happened shortly before 10:30 p.m. at Laurel Road and Bellerose Avenue in East Northport. As the male teenager was crossing the road, he crashed into a 2004 Ford Expedition that had been heading north on Laurel, police said.

The bicyclist, Asharoken resident Ryan Brown, was in serious condition at Stony Brook University Hospital following the incident.

The Ford’s driver, a 53-year-old East Northport man, stayed at the scene of the crash, police said. No charges were filed against him.

Police impounded the Ford for a safety check.

Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call detectives at 631-854-8252.

Tuesday, May 3: This version adds the identity of the teen bicyclist who was injured in the crash, as per new police information.

Roberto Pantoja mugshot from SCPD

A Huntington Station man was charged with a hate crime after allegedly stealing from the same convent twice.

On both March 7 and March 26, the Suffolk County Police Department has alleged, the suspect entered theSaint Hugh of Lincoln Convent on East 9th Street and stole both property and cash that belonged to the nuns living there.

Hate Crimes Unit detectives arrested Roberto Pantoja, 31, on Tuesday, charging him with two counts of second-degree burglary as a hate crime.

Attorney information for Pantoja was not immediately available on the state court system’s online database. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday.

Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to contact detectives at 631-852-6323.

Reynaldo Macadaeg photo from SCPD

Update, 4.27.16, 9:42 a.m.: Police reported that Reynaldo Macadaeg has been found, unharmed.

An elderly man told his wife he wanted to go to the Philippines before disappearing on Monday, the Suffolk County Police Department said.

Reynaldo Macadaeg, a 77-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease, was last seen at his home on Centereach’s Strathmore Village Drive around 3 p.m., according to police.

Authorities issued a Silver Alert for the missing man, who also has heart problems and did not bring any medication with him.

Macadaeg is described as Filipino, 5 feet 4 inches tall and about 160 pounds, police said. He has brown eyes and thinning white hair.

At the time he was last seen, when he told his wife about how he wanted to go to the Philippines, he was wearing navy blue slacks, a dark blue coat and black shoes.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call detectives at 631-854-8652 or 911.

File photo

Huntington Station had another night with gunshots, just a couple of days after two shootings left a man injured and came close to hitting a child.

No injuries were reported after several shots were fired near 10th Avenue in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The Suffolk County Police Department said officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation around 1:30 a.m. 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, spent bullet casings were found at the scene.

The incident happened a little more than two days after back-to-back shootings echoed through Huntington Station. On Saturday night, one man was shot in the foot in a Long Island Rail Road commuter parking lot and just two hours later and a few blocks down, several shots were fired toward a home on East 6th Street. At that home, two friends were standing in the driveway when bullets hit the house and a vehicle in the driveway next door, where an 8-year-old child was asleep in the back seat.

The child was not hurt, police said. In the LIRR lot shooting, the victim fled to a nearby 7-Eleven, where someone called 911. He was in stable condition at the hospital.

Anyone with information about any of the shootings is asked to call the SCPD’s 2nd Squad detectives at 631-854-8252, or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.

File photo

Huntington Station echoed with the sound of gunfire twice on Saturday night, with two incidents just a few blocks from one another that injured one man and almost caught a child in the crosshairs.

The Suffolk County Police Department reported that the shootings occurred in a Long Island Rail Road parking lot and then on a residential street a little more than two hours later.

In the first shooting, according to police, at about 8 p.m. a 20-year-old was walking through the LIRR commuter lot off New York Avenue when another man stepped out of a vehicle, pointed a gun at him and shot him in the foot. The victim, Huntington Station resident Jose Jurado, fled and got to the 7-Eleven at New York Avenue and Depot Road, where another person called 911.

Police said Jurado was in stable condition at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

Later that night, at about 10:15 p.m., several shots were fired toward a home on East 6th Street, between Fairground Avenue and Lenox Road. Police said 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 was not hurt, police said.

Anyone with information about either of the shootings is asked to call the SCPD’s 2nd Squad detectives at 631-854-8252, or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.

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Port Jefferson High School. File photo by Elana Glowatz

School officials in Port Jefferson have finalized a budget that carries a slight increase in taxes and maintains the status quo in classrooms.

The board of education adopted a $41.4 million spending plan during its meeting on April 12, a number that represents a small decrease from the current year’s budget total — nearly $1 million — despite the opposite trajectory of taxes.

That divergence stems from a change in spending next year. In a presentation to the board, Assistant Superintendent for Business Sean Leister said the district would not spend as much on capital projects next year and should see a drop in its debt repayments. The new high school elevator, which has yet to be completed after being funded in the current year’s budget, was one big-ticket item that would not be repeated in 2016-17, Leister said.

Those expense decreases will help offset increases in other areas, such as health insurance payments, utilities and transportation costs, the district said.

Also helping out in the budget, which will maintain academic programs and staffing levels, is an increase in state aid, which Leister estimated at 4.68 percent for Port Jefferson.

After years of deducting aid funds from school districts around New York through a cut called the Gap Elimination Adjustment to balance the state budget, legislators this year restored the aid dollars — giving Long Island school districts a $3 billion boost, when added to other increases in state aid.

With the adjustment eliminated, Leister said the district is able to put its share of the money toward online professional development, special education integration in the elementary school and updating its voting system.

Taxes will increase $0.81 next year for every $100 of assessed value on a property within the school district.

Jose Gaitan mugshot from SCPD

Police say a man was drunk on Sunday night when he struck and killed a pedestrian with his car as the victim ran across Depot Road.

Jose Gaitan was driving a 1999 Nissan Maxima south on that Huntington Station road around 10:30 p.m. when he hit the pedestrian, who the Suffolk County Police Department said was running across the road near the East 12th Street intersection.

That pedestrian, 31-year-old Huntington Station resident Lucas Reyes, was pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital, police said.

Gaitan, 48, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Attorney information for the defendant was not immediately available on Monday morning.

Police impounded the Maxima for a safety check.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the Major Case Section, whose detectives are investigating, at 631-852-6555.

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Port Jefferson Village Hall. File photo by Heidi Sutton

Village taxes will stay the same for Port Jefferson residents next year.

The board of trustees adopted a 2016-17 budget on Wednesday night that will not increase the property tax rate, despite the total spending plan going up about $300,000.

Next year’s $10.6 million budget will make up that difference largely through other revenues, such as an expected increase in mortgage taxes, which are paid to a local government when mortgages are recorded. Treasurer Dave Smollett said during a public hearing on April 13 that even estimating those other revenues conservatively, the village will be able to maintain all that it offers to residents.

“We are not going to compromise those services,” Smollett said.

Following the treasurer’s budget presentation, just before the board unanimously approved the spending plan, Mayor Margot Garant said she was pleased with the budget and was “looking forward to a good year.”

“I’m feeling very optimistic and confident,” she said.

Although the tax levy will increase slightly next year, the assessed value of the entire village has increased as well, keeping the property tax rate at the same level it is in the current budget cycle: $27.51 for every $100 of assessed value on a home.