Authors Posts by Kyle Barr

Kyle Barr

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North Country Road in Shoreham will be getting repaved thanks to a New York State grant. Photo by Kyle Barr

Town workers will soon be taking hammers and dozers to a stretch of North Country Road in Shoreham, all thanks to a state grant.

Plans for the new sidewalks will connect to Brookhaven town owned Shoreham Beach. Photo by Kyle Barr

The Town of Brookhaven announced it had received a $1.8 million grant from the New York State Department of Transportation, Transportation Alternatives Program and made available through the Federal Highway Administration with the intent to start construction in 2020. The plan calls for a revitalization of the well-worn pavement from Woodville Road to the entrance of Shoreham Beach. In addition, the town will construct new U.S. American Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalks, curbs and ramps from Valentine Road down to the entrance of Shoreham Beach. 

Dan Losquadro (R), the town superintendent of highways, said they have had the road on their radar for the past three years, but new ADA compliance standards have mandated the town reconstruct all the sidewalks before they look at paving the road, as was the case when they repaved roads in Rocky Point last year. These new compliances include sensory pads on all ramps and a widening of the sidewalks.

“On North Country Road, there’s almost none of it that’s ADA compliant,” Losquadro said. “For our residents who are disabled, this is a very worthwhile project.”

In addition to the roadwork on North Country Road, the town has also received $50,000 in Multi Modal #4 funding from the state DOT to replace the sidewalk on Route 25A in Shoreham from Roswell Avenue to Woodville Avenue, which should start within the next two months.

The town boasted the new sidewalks will allow walkability from Shoreham Plaza on Route 25A, to Miller Avenue Elementary School all the way to the town-owned Shoreham Beach.

Councilwoman Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point) said local chambers of commerce, civics and the Shoreham-Wading River schools superintendent, Gerard Poole, wrote letters to the state to help in the grant effort. 

“Those sidewalks are crumbling, they’re narrow and they’re not ADA compliant,” she said.

Currently the sidewalk ends at Valentine Road, and the shoulders of the road, beyond a few residential homes, border sharp slopes and woods on both sides. This makes it hazardous for bikers and joggers who climb the hilly road north of North Country Road. Losquadro said the new sidewalk will be located on the north side of North Country Road and construction should start in spring of next year.

Along with road resurfacing, new sidewalks, curbs and ramps, plans include the construction of new retaining walls along grade changes and drainage installations plus upgrades. 

“This project will dramatically improve the road safety and access for our students and families as they travel to school and walk to bus stops,” Superintendent Poole said in a release. “We look forward to its implementation as it is an added level of protection for our school community.”

The highway superintendent said the new project has the potential to dovetail into Suffolk County’s upcoming Rails to Trails project, which looks to make a hiking and biking trail from Wading River to Mount Sinai along the PSEGLI/LIPA-owned right-of-way. County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) has told TBR News Media in previous interviews that project is expected to start construction in the fall, however there is no word where construction will begin.

Local residents help clean up; from left to right, Donna Denner, Susan Guerin, Debbie Bush, Pete Giery, Danielle Ray, Laura Rizzo, Christina Heaney and Claudia Capie-Friszell. Photo courtesy of Audrey Asaro

For the first time, Comsewogue Public Library participated in helping to clean up Brookhaven town.

As part of the 12th Annual Great Brookhaven Cleanup, staff and patrons from the library started early May 17, on the northern section of Terryville Road, cleaning up garbage along the wooded areas. They collected over eight large bags of garbage, two hub caps and a lot of plastic and glass bottles. 

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Shirley Weiner

Shirley Weiner, a resident of Port Jefferson for 44 years, passed away May 13 and was laid to rest at Calverton National Cemetery May 16. She was 87.

Weiner was born in Brooklyn in 1931 and lived in many different places before settling in Port Jefferson, including Brazil and the Azores Islands in Portugal where her husband served as a diplomat.

After raising four children, she went back to school to earn her master’s degree in social work at Stony Brook University. She worked as a social worker at Stony Brook University Hospital for 16 years before retiring. In her retirement, Weiner was able to develop her passion for watercolor painting and had several local shows of her artwork. She was also an avid reader and active member of the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library book club.

She is survived by her husband, Harry Weiner; her sons Robert, Daniel and Alex; her daughter Joan; their spouses; and 11 grandchildren.  

She will be greatly missed.

Nick Boba

Nick Boba, of Centerport, died May 6. He was 59. He was the beloved husband of Maggie, loving father of Jared and Justin and the dear brother of Stacey (Wayne) Kneussle. Visitation was held at Nolan Funeral Home in Northport.

In Nick’s memory donations are appreciated to the Center for Developmental Disabilities, 72 South Woods Road, Woodbury, NY 11797 or one can donate online at www.centerfordd.org/donate/.

James Regan

James Nolan Regan, of East Northport, died May 10 at the age of 76.

He was the beloved husband of Peggy Ann (nee O’Brien); loving father of Peggy Ann (Michael) Gallagher, James (Kamala) Regan, Eileen (Russell) Murphy, Thomas (Marie) Regan and Jeanne (Christopher) Kozlowsky; the dear brother of Florence Keutmann and Dennis Regan and the late Thomas Regan, the late John Regan and the late Margaret Cahill; and cherished grandfather of Katherine, Michael, Emily and Ryan Gallagher; Claire, Molly, Kelly and Maggie Regan; Reilly, Brigid and Liam Murphy; Matthew, Brendan and Kaitlin Regan and Regan and Adelyn Kozlowsky.

Regan and his wife Peggy Ann were married for 55 years and were christened together 76 years ago. Jim retired as a lieutenant with the New York Police Department with his last assignment at the 81st precinct.

A funeral Mass was celebrated May 15 at St. Anthony of Padua Church in East Northport, followed with a  burial at Commack Cemetery.

People donating in his name can do so at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Clorinda Oates

Clorinda A. Oates, of Huntington, died May 15. She was 92. 

She was the loving mother of Susan (D.J. Young) Oates, Joseph Oates and Linda Jean (Gordon) Brown; beloved grandmother of Joe III, Gregory Oates, Melissa Oates and Derek and Robert Brown; and cherished great- grandmother of Colton and dear sister-in-law of Vera Carminati. 

She was reposed at Nolan Funeral Home, in Northport with a funeral Mass at St. Philip Neri Church in Northport. Interment followed at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Huntington.

John Henesy

John K. Henesy, of Hauppauge, died May 6. He was 92. 

Henesy was the beloved husband of the late Catherine; the loving father of Kevin (Joanna), and Barbara Ann Etkin; the cherished grandfather of Nicole Henesy (Jason Stewart), Angela Henesy, Benjamin Etkin and William Etkin; and dear great-grandfather of Jayden. 

Visitation was held at Calvary Chapel Island of Grace in Holbrook. Funeral services were held at the church and he was buried beside his wife with military honors at Calverton National Cemetery. Arrangements were handled by Nolan Funeral Home of Northport.

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For close to a month, Tom Butera, a mason in Port Jefferson village, laid the bricks down for the new Armed Forces Tribute in front of the Port Jeff High School. Though he had been laying bricks for over 40 years, bending over, picking them up, planting them in the ground, to him, every brick represented a family and a sacrifice.

“These we’re the heaviest bricks I ever laid,” he said.

On May 30, veterans cut the ribbon on the new tribute surrounded by well more than 100 local residents. The center of the memorial is a large stone with a plaque on it surrounded by bricks donated by local residents with notes of names of family members who were involved in the armed services. By the end, the memorial looks remarkably like the sketch by high school student Jillian Lawler produced in January, when the brick drive was first announced.

While many donated $100 for each brick, others in the community came out to support the new memorial. Gabe Zoda, 17, a senior at the high school and a member of Boy Scouts of America Troop 45, donated benches to the project, each emblazoned with the fleur-de-lis of the Boy Scouts. Zoda expects to move on to Hofstra University after graduation where he will study broadcast journalism.

The idea for the project spawned from local Vietnam veteran Jim Henke, who had originally approached the district several years ago about building the memorial. It would take years, but the district helped form an Armed Forces Tribute committee in 2017, with local veterans and residents as members, who helped get the project rolling at the beginning of this year.

“Most of these veterans I knew myself from the Vietnam era,” Henke said. “We played ball together, we had a good time in the 60s, and we lost so many of those lives that I thought this was just fitting.”

Though it took time for the project to take root, he said it was the efforts of the school administration and Superintendent Paul Casciano.

“I want to thank the entire Port Jefferson School District community that raised enough brick sales to support the project without any assistance from the school district,” Henke said.

Local residents stooped down to take pictures of bricks donated by friends and family, and the Port Jefferson art staff was on call if people looked to get a rubbing of their bricks.

“I would like to say thank you for the names of the men and women engraved on the walkway,” said high school Principal Christine Austen. “My hope is that this tribute stands as a reminder to all the youth that Port Jefferson veterans are heroes that will always be close to our hearts.”

Butera feels a deep connection to the new veterans tribute. It’s his father’s name, Technical Sergeant Tony Butera of the U.S. Army Air Corps, that is inscribed in one of the bricks. His father was shot down during WWII over Hamburg, Germany, flying in a B17 bomber. His plane landed on a field of sheep, what they called a “fleece-lined landing,” and he and his compatriots were held at gunpoint on their knees by several disgruntled farmers. He became a prisoner of war on Jan. 17, 1945, and he was held for 134 days in a POW camp before it was liberated by troops led by Gen. George Patton. It was with his father that Butera picked up and laid his first brick.

While he looks fondly back on the stories of his father, he sees the different side of war with the record of his son, Greg, a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan. There was a time where Butera had no communication with his son for three months, though now Greg is home, and has a wife and a daughter.

“When it got hard to work, I told myself ‘shut up — these people were in a much harder spot,’” Butera said. “It was such an honor to do it.”

Jim Henke’s name was changed May 31 to correct the spelling of his last name.

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Suffolk County Police 6th Precinct officers are trying to identify and locate two people who allegedly entered a marina illegally and untied boats in Port Jefferson back in April.

Two women allegedly climbed over the fence at Port Jefferson Marina on West Broadway and untied two boats sometime between April 25 at 6 p.m. and April 26 at 7 a.m.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 800-220-TIPS (8477) or texting “SCPD” and your message to “CRIMES” (274637). All calls and text messages will be kept confidential.

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The Port Jefferson School District Armed Forces tribute. Photo from PJSD

The Port Jefferson School District will unveil its new Armed Forces tribute at a dedication ceremony with students May 30, at 10 a.m., at the Earl L. Vandermeulen High School. 

The tribute, created to express gratitude to those former students and staff members who have served in the armed forces, will salute military personnel with welcoming remarks from student leaders and school and local government officials. The Port Jefferson Middle School band will perform and students from Edna Louise Spear Elementary School will share poetry written especially for the occasion. 

“More than two dozen school staff and community members came together to form this committee with enthusiasm and camaraderie to honor those who served,” said Superintendent Paul Casciano. “The culmination of months of planning, fundraising and fellowship has resulted in a tribute of which our school community will be very proud.”

For those who cannot attend the event, a public recognition will be held Saturday, June 22, at
9:30 a.m.

In honor of Memorial Day, Mount Sinai’s Heritage Park hosted its annual Parade of Flags, while VFW’s in Rocky Point and Sound Beach took the time May 27 to memorialize those servicemen and servicewomen lost throughout the years.

Joe Cognitore, the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6249 in Rocky Point, read the names of 204 people who have died in the service of the U.S., with each set of names said to the sound of a bell. He said the number of names he reads every Memorial Day grows every year.

Over in Sound Beach, the Sound Beach Civic, along with members of the Sound Beach Fire Department, hosted their own ceremony at the Sound Beach Veterans Memorial. Flags flew at half mast, but veterans of each branch of service, from the U.S. Military, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, helped raise each of the flags high to the bright, sunny sky. Members of the Miller Place Boy Scouts of America Troop 204 played an echo version of taps.

“Flowers, memorials and flags at half staff, and the sad notes of taps, as meaningful as they are, they are not enough,” Cognitore said. What we really must do to honor their sacrifice is to live what they died for.”

 

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Members and compatriots of the American Legion Wilson Ritch Post 432 in Port Jefferson Station hosted their annual Memorial Day commemoration at Veterans Memorial Park right in front of Port Jefferson Harbor.

After a presentation of the colors and the wreath laying, veterans moved the flags to half-mast. The group moved onto the Three Village area, where they participated in the unveiling of a newly rejuvenated veterans memorials in Stony Brook Village and the Setauket Village Green. The work is being done with the efforts of Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and several local veteran groups and has been funded through outside donations. This first phase of the project was completed by Memorial Day, and the second phase is expected to revitalize the Setauket Veterans Memorial Park and the Port Jefferson Veterans Memorial Park by Veterans Day this fall.

Dressed in purple, runners took to the streets for the newly renamed Jill Nees-Russell Power of One Family Fun Run. Photo by Kyle Barr

A wave of purple flooded through Port Jeff May 18 as the Royal Educational Foundation hosted their sixth annual Family Fun Run, now named in honor of Jill Nees-Russell, an active village resident and foundation member who died last year.

Close to 200 people came out for the yearly event, raising funds for the foundation’s efforts to promote and aid the local school district. As the event went under way, foundation treasurer Laura Zimmerman spoke on the verge of tears about Nees-Russell, a proponent of both the foundation and the school district. She was nominated three times for the Power of One award, but was ineligible for the first time, too sick to receive it the second. Instead of giving her the award posthumously, the organization instead decided to rename the entire event in her honor. 

“We wanted to recognize Jill’s contribution to our village, school and community with a lasting tribute to her amazing spirit,” she said.

In addition to their Power of One award, the foundation awarded $750 to Fred Russell, Jill’s husband, who plans to use the money to create a scholarship in her name.

This year’s Power of One award went to Tony Butera, a teacher in the Port Jefferson School District who the foundation said inspires students and others in and out of the classroom. 

“To even be mentioned in the same space as Jill is an honor,” he said.

Port Jeff Chamber wellness fair showcases the bounty of healthy living

After the run, hundreds congregated at the Earl L. Vandermeulen High School gym for the 10th annual Health and Wellness Festival, hosted by the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.

Visitors could learn more about eating healthy, dieting, exercising and medicine from multiple vendors such as Mather and Stony Brook University hospitals. Participants even had the opportunity for face painting and to participate in goat yoga, doing poses such as “downward kid,” and “stretching goat.”

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Holding coat hangers and signs high above their heads, nearly 20 protesters stood at the corner of Nesconset Highway and Route 112 shouting “Keep your hands off our bodies,” and “We won’t go back.”

The locals, organized by the North Shore Peace group, came out in protest decrying several states’ moves to severely restrict abortion, including Alabama, Georgia, Ohio and Missouri. In Alabama’s case, abortion will be restricted to only in cases that the woman’s health is in danger. It also restricts abortion for people who are victims of rape, and doctors who perform abortions could face up to 99 years in prison.

The laws have largely been seen as attempts to move abortion to the plate of the U.S. Supreme Court in the hopes that landmark case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortions, would be overturned.

Protesters held coat hangers high above their heads to symbolize the instrument used when abortions were illegal to perform
“backroom” unsanitary abortions, often out of desperation.

“I’m speechless, I just don’t know what to say anymore,” said Myrna Gordon, a protest organizer.

One protester, Janet Sklar, had a charm necklace that she plucked out of her shirt and laid over her sign. One charm, a coat hanger, had been on that necklace for close to 40 years.

“We were marching in the ʼ70s for this, and look how far we haven’t come,” she said.