Shoreham-Wading River’s Tom Bell shoots scoring two of his eight points Jan. 5. Photo by Bill Landon
Shoreham-Wading River’s Tristan Costello scores topping the charts for the Wildcats with 9 points Jan. 5. Photo by Bill Landon
Shoreham-Wading River’s Matt Cook shoots from the paint in a league V match up visiting Sayville. Photo by Bill Landon
Shoreham-Wading River’s Tristan Costello drives to the basket for 2 of his 9 points against visiting Sayville. Photo by Bill Landon
Shoreham-Wading River’s Tom Bell drives the baseline in a league V match up Jan. 5 . Photo by Bill Landon
Shoreham-Wading River’s Tristan Costello drives to the rim scoring 2 of his team high 9 points Jan. 5 against visiting Sayville. Photo by Bill Landon
By Bill Landon
After a disastrous first half for Shoreham-Wading River’s boys basketball team netting only 7 points before the break, the Wildcats came out shooting in the third quarter out scoring Sayville 20-14 over the final 16 minutes of play; but it was too little too late. The Wildcats fell to visiting Sayville 32-27 in a League V contest Jan. 5. Tristan Costello banked 4 field goals and a free throw to lead his team in scoring with 9, followed by Tom Bell’s 4 swishes from the free throw line and a pair of field goals for 8 points. The loss drops the Wildcats to 1-4 in the league, 4-5 overall. The team was back in action Jan. 8 where they traveled to Westhampton, but the Wildcats lost 58-60.
Eastern Suffolk BOCES CEO Julie Lutz speaks to residents. Photo by Kyle Barr
Who would be Port Jefferson’s perfect superintendent?
It’s a question of priorities, according to Eastern Suffolk BOCES CEO Julie Lutz, who hosted a public meeting Jan. 3 at the Port Jefferson High School asking residents what they would like to see in a new PJ superintendent once Paul Casciano, the district’s current superintendent, vacates his position July 1.
“A superintendent’s job is to work at the direction of the board, and to organize his or her cabinet to implement the business and instructional practices of the district,” Lutz said. “He’s or she’s the voice of the district to the community, he’s basically responsible for everything that happens.”
‘We need to keep us as a school district of excellence, not cutting programs or anything like that.’
— Arnold Lustig
Twenty-four people applied for the superintendent position through the month of December while the position was being advertised, according to Lutz. BOCES and the Port Jeff school district are still currently screening interviews. All candidates require a School District Leader state-level certificate, and while around half of all superintendents in the Eastern BOCES area have doctorates, it is not required for the job.
Lutz guided a conversation among around 20 Port Jeff residents who came to the meeting about what residents wanted from a superintendent from the perspective of personality and professionalism.
Longtime Port Jeff resident Arnold Lustig said he is currently satisfied with how Casciano has handled the district as of late, and he wants the new superintendent to continue in that.
“We need to keep us as a school district of excellence, not cutting programs or anything like that,” Lustig said.
Karen Sullivan, the president of the Port Jefferson Special Education Parent Teacher Association, said the district is different than other schools across Long Island due to its small class size and its large amount of retirees who live within the district. She said she would want a superintendent willing to reach out to the different segments of the village population.
“We’re an anomaly,” Sullivan said. “If that person can meet with all the stakeholders besides just the parents in the district we would be better for it.”
Leza DiBella, the president elect of the PJSEPTA, said the district is well known in the area for taking special education to heart, and she hopes that will continue with a new superintendent. Other community members agreed a new superintendent should not pay sole attention to high achieving students or students who need the most assistance, but those students in the middle of the pack could also use that consideration.
“This is a district handpicked by residents known for being inclusive and welcoming,” DiBella said.
‘If that person can meet with all the stakeholders besides just the parents in the district we would be better for it.’
— Karen Sullivan
Some in the meeting said they wanted the new superintendent to have had classroom experience, while others asked that he or she should have a strong business sense to handle the district’s finances.
Port Jeff resident Bob Gross, whose child is currently enrolled in the district, said he would want continuous improvement in the school district, whether it’s renovating some of the aging school buildings or building upon current programming, though he was concerned if the district will be able to finance these improvements or pass its budget due to recent events at the end of 2018.
The Town of Brookhaven and the Village of Port Jeff settled a lawsuit with the Long Island Power Authority over the Port Jefferson power station’s tax assessment. The effects of the lawsuit will reduce the $32.6 million tax assessment by 50 percent incrementally over the next nine years to $16.8 million, starting with the 2017-18 tax year.
The school district is still analyzing what the overall impact on the community could be, but Casciano said at the time residents should expect a tax increase, and the decreased funds the district will receive from LIPA could result in programming being slashed.
Lustig said while many in the district remain concerned over how the LIPA decision might impact them, it’s time to move forward.
“The LIPA issue is done, in fact, it’s no longer an issue,” he said. “The tax rate will go up, and we may be comparatively taxed compared to other local districts. We have to decide what we are going to do to keep the school moving along.”
Brookhaven’s single-stream recycling facility in Yaphank. File photo by Clayton Collier
By Karina Gerry
The Town of Brookhaven returned to a dual-stream recycling model — where paper, plastic and metals are separated —at the end of November to alleviate problems in the recycling market, but the switch has left some Brookhaven residents confused and frustrated.
The Three Village Civic Association hoped to ease residents’ worries and concerns at its Jan. 7 meeting by inviting Chris Andrade, commissioner of Brookhaven Town’s Department of Recycling and Sustainable Materials Management, and Erich Weltsek, town recycling coordination aide, to speak at Emma S. Clark Library in Setauket about the new dual-stream recycling schedule and explain why the change was necessary.
“We decided to focus our monthly meeting on changes in the town’s recycling program because the changes are significant,” George Hoffman, vice president of the Three Village Civic Association, said.
An aerial view of Town of Brookhaven’s Green Stream Recycling plant in Yaphank is surrounded by recyclables in August 2018. Brookhaven has since returned to dual stream recycling. Photo from Town of Smithtown
In October 2018, Green Stream Recycling, Brookhaven’s recycling contractor, terminated its 25-year agreement to operate Brookhaven’s recycling plant in Yaphank. The recycling market was deeply affected by China’s National Sword policy, implemented in January of last year, which bans the import of 24 types of solid waste and has set strict contamination limits on recyclable materials.
China has been the leading world importer of waste, at one point taking in more than 50 percent of the world’s plastic recyclables. As a result of National Sword, recycled material has piled up at recycling facilities across the country, like Brookhaven’s in Yaphank.
“Switching from single stream to dual stream was not something we wanted to do,” Andrade said during his presentation Monday night. “But it was a product of circumstance.”
Andrade went on to explain recent changes to the recycling marketplace were unexpected, noting that no one thought it would happen on the scale that it did and so quickly, too.
“In my opinion, the buyers need to own some of it,” Andrade said. “There were domestic mills when I started in this business. There were domestic processing plants. They started paying less money than the overseas plants and so everybody started shipping material overseas. People put all their eggs into one basket and then when China shut down there were no homes for us anymore.”
While Andrade notes the future for domestic mills seems likely to turn the market around, he doesn’t believe it will happen for at least a year.
As the markets took a downturn, cross contamination of recycling became an issue. For Old Field resident and Sierra Club Long Island Group chair Jane Fasullo, the problem isn’t surprising. Fasullo took a tour of the single-stream facility and was surprised by what she saw.
It was an “eye-opening experience,” Fasullo said. “It wasn’t as lean of a separation as I thought it would be.”
While Fasullo noted single stream did encourage more recycling overall, she said she believes dual stream produces a cleaner stream, yet she insists the problem we should be concerned about isn’t single stream versus dual stream, the real issue plaguing our country is plastic.
“The biggest industry going that prevents major changes is the plastics industry,” Fasullo said. “We’re being overrun by plastic. Even our clothing now is plastic. And all of this stuff is just building up our garbage piles.”
When Brookhaven announced its decision to move back to dual stream the town placed ads in a number of papers including TBR News Media newspapers. Later the town broadcast its new policy through radio, television, social media and newspaper ads. Still, many residents said they were not properly contacted and informed about the changes.
“You know, there are so many forms of media now to communicate to,” Andrade said. “So, it’s a challenge.”
‘We’re being overrun by plastic. Even our clothing now is plastic. And all of this stuff is just building up our garbage piles.’
— Jane Fasullo
A popular concern that was continuously brought up at the meeting was the issue of glass, which is no longer being picked up curbside, much to the dismay of residents. Instead, satellite locations have been set up throughout the town where glass can be dropped off free of charge. So far there are seven locations, including the town’s parking lot across from the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook, the Rose Caracappa Senior Center in Mount Sinai and Brookhaven Town Hall in Farmingville.
Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartwright (D-Port Jefferson Station) expressed her appreciation for the commissioner coming to speak to the community and providing background information to help people understand the switch from single stream to dual stream.
“This education is key to the success of recycling with the town,” Cartright said. “This office will continue to promote further education and work with residents to address any complaints or concerns they may have during this transition.”
After the meeting was over, Andrade expressed a positive outlook on the results from the meeting and future meetings that he and his colleague Weltsek hope to hold with civic associations around the town.
“I think overall people want to do the right thing,” Andrade said. “And I think they will do the right thing. It’s just a matter of giving them enough time and enough information to do the right thing.”
Gabby Sartori drives the lane in a Feb. 6, 2018 game against Miller Place. Photo by Desirée Keegan
The players on Mount Sinai’s girls basketball team like to rib senior Gabby Sartori about her scoring record. Of course, it’s all in good humor, and if she’s anxious about her record, she doesn’t show it. After all, having sunk over 1,500 points in her 6-year varsity basketball career, and with college looming on the horizon, the final score isn’t something she wants to stress about.
“I’m not a braggart, but they definitely mention it a lot — they kind of say it to get me uncomfortable about it,” Sartori said. “That’s the kind of thing you expect from your friends.”
Gabby Sartori maintains possession along the sideline in a 2018 lacrosse game. Photo by Desirée Keegan
The Mount Sinai senior scored her 1,000th point Dec. 27, 2017, but it only took her a short time to reach that next milestone in a Dec. 28 game against Smithtown West, with Mount Sinai finishing, 56-44. It’s an achievement that has her coach, Jeff Koutsantanou, close to reeling.
“I’ve been coaching for about 20 years, both boys and girls, and I’ve never had a player who has an ability to score like her,” Koutsantanou said. “One thousand is great, but for her to get 1,500 is tremendous.”
It’s a constant edge of improvement, and while 1,500 is a nice round number, Sartori already scored 35 points in a Jan. 2 game against Bayport-Blue Point in which the Mustangs won, 57-47.
Yet Sartori, who plays guard in most games, said she is not letting the numbers go to her head. She’s cool under pressure, and she becomes laser focused on achieving what she wants, whether it’s sinking a basket or in her academics with a 94 unweighted GPA.
Sartori will be attending Brown University after she graduates Mount Sinai, but she won’t be playing basketball once she gets to the Ivy League school. Instead, she’ll be there for lacrosse, which along with soccer, is another sport she has excelled in.
“I’ve gotten so used to balancing them, but there was one point where I had to balance all three sports at the same time with travel, but it helps with college next year because I’ll have that all year round,” she said.
While Ivy League schools don’t give out much in the way of scholarships, the young basketball player said it’s all about what she can use, either in sports or in the name of a school, to help her realize her professional dreams.
“If you can use a sport to that high ground, I would do it 100 percent,” Sartori said. “I don’t care if they haven’t won any tournaments.”
When it comes to her college expectations, the young basketball player said she expects to enroll in the college’s communications programs, eventually hoping to work in sports broadcasting as either a commentator or analyst.
‘If you can use a sport to that high ground, I would do it 100 percent.’
— Gabby Sartori
In her visits to Brown, Sartori said the Ivy League’s lacrosse team has already been friendly, but are amazed at her skill having come from a little known public school on Long Island.
“They’re all shocked that I go to a public school, because they all come from private schools,” she said. “Their shocked and say, ‘you go to school with boys?’ and I say, ‘yeah, I do.’”
Even with college lacrosse on the horizon, basketball has been one of those lifetime sports for Sartori, as she’s been playing the sport since she was 4 years old, egged on by her father Jim Sartori.
Despite her impressive record, Sartori is just one exceptional player amongst a standout team. Last season the girls went 20-0 in a near perfect run before finally being defeated Feb. 26 in a county finals loss to Hauppauge.
The Mustangs are currently sitting at a solid 6-2, but there is still much of the season left. Of course, Sartori said the team’s goal is to make it to county champions, but the young basketball player said she wants to see the team go as far as they can in the playoffs.
“I want us to try to get as far as we can in the postseason — I’d take a loss now over that,” she said.
The boys lunge for the cross. Photo by Gerard Romano
Father Demetrios Calogredes of the PJ Orthodox Church throws the cross into the harbor. Photo by Gerard Romano
Three boys race after the cross as it lands in the water. Photo by Gerard Romano
George Franks, mount sinai resident, reached the cross first. Photo by Gerard Romano
Father Demetrios Calogredes of the PJ Orthodox Church throws the cross into the harbor. Photo by Gerard Romano
The Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption in Port Jefferson hosted its annual celebration of Epiphany at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai Jan. 6 by once again sending eager young adults through chilling waters to reach a cross thrown into the waters celebrating the Orthodox religious holiday.
While three young men lunged for the cross, 14-year-old George Franks came up in the shallow waters holding the cross aloft. An ambulance awaited the chilled participants to warm them up directly afterward.
Father Demetrios Calogredes, who performed the day’s ceremonies, said the ceremony which celebrates the story of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River, has been held since the church’s founding in 1959. The blessing is done for all forms of travel, whether by car, plane or boat, to ensure safe
journeys.
Photos clockwise from top: the three young men dash after the cross; Calogredes throws the cross into Mount Sinai Harbor; Mount Sinai resident George Franks holds up hand in triumph, and he stands holding the cross.
Port Jefferson Superintendent Paul Casciano addresses the Class of 2018 during graduation June 22. File photo by Alex Petroski
Port Jefferson School District has a lot on its plate, and whoever ends up sitting in the captain’s chair is going to need a strong character to deal with it all.
In August Paul Casciano, the district’s current superintendent, announced his plans to retire at the end of the 2018-19 school year. By July 1, 2019, a new superintendent will have to fill the position.
“The most important decision a school board makes is who they hire as a superintendent, because that’s basically your CEO,” Casciano said.
While the board still has to interview candidates in January and February of next year, come May 2019, board President Kathleen Brennan said she expects the board will make its final choice.
“Different people interact with the superintendent differently.”
—Kathleen Brennan
In the meantime, the Port Jefferson school board is looking for community feedback on what they would most like from a superintendent. Working with Eastern Suffolk BOCES, the board released an online survey to community members asking them to judge what best qualities they wanted from the head of their school district. Some of the questions ask residents to rate how important a prospective superintendent’s knowledge of finance and business is or how important is their background in education.
While a superhuman superintendent would exhibit five stars in all these qualities, Brennan said the questions are there to gauge how important one quality is compared to another. She added people who work in education might place a greater emphasis on the new superintendent’s educational knowledge versus a local business owner placing more significance on the financial health of the district.
“Different people interact with the superintendent differently,” Brennan said.
A superintendent makes the day-to-day decisions for the entire school district, often trying to keep to the vision of the school board, including spending, staffing, facilities and school programs.
However, the next superintendent of Port Jeff will have to find ways to handle the situation involving the local National Grid-owned power plant. LIPA has alleged the plants in both Port Jefferson and Northport have been overassessed in its payment of millions of dollars in annual property taxes, though Dec. 14 the Town of Brookhaven announced it had reached a settlement with LIPA, promising to reduce the Port Jeff plant’s assessments by around 50 percent over nine years.
The fallout of whatever ends up happening with LIPA has the possibility of directly impacting residents property taxes as well as school funding. Casciano said it will be important in the future to make sure the fallout of LIPA does not fall too much on either the district’s head or on residents.
“The next superintendent is going to need to take a balanced approach,” Casciano said. “We don’t just represent the residents who have children, it affects their taxes and we’re cognizant of that. … On the other hand, our core mission is teaching and learning — our real clients are children — we can’t turn our back on that and call ourselves educators.”
The Port Jeff school district is of much smaller size compared to neighboring districts, though the current superintendent said they enjoy small class sizes and specialized programs. Should a final LIPA decision impact the district negatively, the next superintendent would have to make hard choices on which specialized education programs to prioritize if the economic situation gets any more complicated.
Based on that looming potential crisis, Casciano said a new superintendent is going to need a strong backbone.
“No matter which way you go, you never satisfy everyone with a decision,” he said. “When it comes to schools which has taxes and kids involved with it, there is a lot greater passion attached to those voices.”
“No matter which way you go, you never satisfy everyone with a decision.”
—Paul Casciano
Brennan said she expects the incoming superintendent should use the current district administration, which has been cultivated to provide a good support structure to whoever steps into the position.
“We’re not overstaffed administratively, by any means,” the board president said.
Casciano said while he expects a new superintendent to bring their own ideas and creative solutions to problems, he doesn’t expect them to overhaul on current staff.
“It’s a successful school district, and to come in and think there’s major changes to be made says you don’t really know the district,” he said.
The school board will be hosting a public meeting Jan 3. with Julie Davis Lutz, COO of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, to allow residents to express their thoughts on the necessary skills for the next superintendent. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
Operation Veronica founder Janet Godfrey tapes up a package to be shipped to a solider. Photo by Kyle Barr
Nearly every Friday at St. Anthony Padua R.C. Church in Rocky Point a number of women are hunched over boxes, twine and packing slips.
Though it may be Christmastime, for the women of Operation Veronica, a nonprofit that sends care packages to active military personnel stationed all over the globe, the season of giving has lasted since 2005.
“I’ve been here 13 years, almost since the first day,” volunteer Annabelle Skoglind said. “The government takes care of their basic needs, but there’s always something that could make them feel a little better.”
Operation Veronica founder Janet Godfrey, in back, and volunteers Judi Miranda and Annabelle Skoglind put together items to be shipped as care packages to soldiers across the world. Photo by Kyle Barr
All of it comes from the mind of Wading River resident Janet Godfrey, who has led her team for more than a decade of giving, sending much more than 70,000 items, including food, toiletries, utensils, playing cards, hand warmers, blankets, scarves and items that help those soldiers remember that people back home still care about them and support them.
The many volunteers who work with Operation Veronica have nothing but praise for Godfrey.
“She never stops, she’s like a dynamo,” Skoglind said.
During packing days Godfrey is a bundle of energy with her packing-tape gun like a magic wand in her hands. Though the weeks vary, the group can send more than 50 boxes out in a single session. These boxes end up in nine different countries and U.S. Navy ships.
The boxes the group dispatches are filled with essentials, but the volunteers often add other items at soldiers’ requests, such as glue traps to deal with vermin. The group is often busy making their own products such as neck coolers made from cloth or survival bracelets made from 550 paracords, the same cordage airborne infantry used making World War II parachutes.
It’s not cheap to send so many boxes overseas, even using medium-sized flat-rate United States Postal Service boxes. If the group wishes to send a more irregular-sized box, it may cost upward of $30 or $40. Operation Veronica relies mainly on donations from the community, and Godfrey is constantly going out to civic meetings and seeing public officials to help raise funds.
“She takes great care in every package she sends,” said volunteer Liz Meskill. “She goes out to all these places to raise money just for our postage. She goes out and she does it, and she never complains. It gives her the enthusiasm to keep going.”
They often rely upon support from American Legion Post 1880 in Ridge, American Legion Women’s Auxiliary at the Leisure Glen Homeowners Association in Ridge, Rocky Point VFW Post 6249 and The Richard and Mary Morrison Foundation based in Port Jefferson.
Operation Veronica volunteer Irene Stellato braids a bracelet. Photo by Kyle Barr
“Janet, who leads this nonprofit volunteer organization in certainly more than deserving the recognition as person of the year,” said Joe Cognitore, commander of VFW Post 6249. “Janet would share some of the great responses that the troops send back. They are very appreciative that Operation Veronica cares about them and that they are remembered.”
The genuine feeling of appreciation for the troops overseas is evident in everything Godfrey and the volunteers do. It’s evident in the care and attention they pay to each package they ship out. It’s apparent in simply how they talk about the troops with an absolute reverence.
“She feels for the troops,” volunteer Irene Stellato said. “When something happens with the troops she cries, we all cry. She feels it from her heart.”
Godfrey said while her group isn’t explicitly a Christian organization, she was inspired by the story of St. Veronica The name for the group comes from the story of St. Veronica, who in the Bible is said to have used her veil to wipe the face of Jesus as he carried his cross to the mound. Godfrey’s words describing her organization and what it does ring true beyond all today’s
current politics and issues overseas.
“She couldn’t take him off the walk, she couldn’t change his fate, but she gave him a momentary relief from physical discomfort, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Godfrey said. “We can’t change their fates, we can’t change their lives, we can’t bring them home as much as we want to, but we can cool them off when they’re hot, we can warm them up when they’re cold, we can give them something to eat when they’re hungry, so we do what we can.”
At a glance, the Long Island Explorium building looks like an old-school log cabin compared to the great glass facade of the neighboring Port Jefferson Village Center and the rustic townhouses or surrounding businesses.
Angeline Judex
If anything, both the building and the Long Island Explorium program, which brings in school-aged children from all across Long Island in education programs, stand out. They have stood out in no small part thanks to Angeline Judex, the executive director of the explorium.
Judex has been a part of the Port Jefferson program for close to two years.“She has a great desire to work with people, and she’s very honoring of other people’s perspectives,” said Jacqueline Grennon Brooks, the president of the Long Island Explorium. “Through that dialogue with people is how we can achieve these goals.”
Every year the explorium welcomes close to 10,000 young students through its doors. Inside is a number of puzzles and interlocking machinery, all part of a teaching philosophy called constructionism, which asks young people to use ingenuity and logic to solve problems on their own.
“She’s made her program very successful, and she’s brought in students from all over Long Island,” Port Jeff trustee Bruce D’Abramo said. “She’s one of the reasons that Port Jefferson is a place for learning and life sciences.”
The explorium has become a lightning rod for STEAM education and creativity in Port Jefferson since it was created in 2004, then bearing the name The Maritime Explorium. Since then, programs have expanded outward from Port Jeff, but the most sizable events still happen within Port Jeff Village, often spilling out from its log cabin building and onto Harborfront Park. In November the explorium received $43,626 in grant funds to install native plant rain gardens in high visibility areas such as in front of its building on East Broadway and the corner of East Broadway and Main Street.
While the Mini Maker’s Faire had its fourth year in 2018, under Judex, the event gained official status with the larger Makers Faire organization. The past two events brought thousands of people to the village who experienced many things from amateur DIY robotics to Colonial-era cooking and blacksmithing. Now expanding on the idea, the executive director has brought in past faire participants for “makers spotlights,” which show guests at the explorium their projects and explain to them how they created them.
“I have found her to be very personable, very organized and very focused,” said village administrator Robert Juliano. “She has a sunny disposition and always looking to make things better for the explorium and the community.”
Angeline Angeline Judex receives a grant from Edward Palleschi of the Long Island Community Foundation. Photo by Kyle Barr
In August 2017 the explorium hosted a watching party for the total eclipse of the sun. Even then, with so many heads turned to the sky, the explorium was pushing the scientific impact of the event by having those who attended help to accumulate scientific data to be used by researchers across the country. Children of all ages charted the temperature, percentage of the sky covered by clouds, the color of the sky and the visibility of the sun every five minutes until the conclusion of the eclipse. All the data was collected and sent to NASA.
Brooks said since Judex has become the executive director, the explorium has focused more and more on outreach outside the Port Jeff community. The explorium hosts outreach programs for public school teachers called Educate the Educators that sends explorium staff out to school districts such as William Floyd to help those teachers embrace problem-based education techniques, often on a small budget. In the past instead of simply teaching kids about earthquakes with pictures and PowerPoints, Judex used gelatin and had kids build houses that could resist the constant trembling.
“Because of economics, going out on field trips is being done much less than it has been done in the past, so what we do is we bring our program to school,” Brooks said. “This takes the explorium model to other aspects of their teaching program.”
Judex and the explorium are not slowing down either. The Mini Maker’s Faire will return next year, and the executive director already has plans to make additions to the building interior, working with a local Girl Scout to create a programmable robotic hand.
If anything, Judex and the explorium have become much less of a hidden gem, and more of a shining jewel in the Port Jefferson community.
The Port Jefferson Free Library is at the corner of Thompson and East Main streets. File photo
Two spots for trustee on at the Port Jefferson Free Library are coming up for vote in January and five community members are asking library cardholders for their vote.
While current library trustee Christian Neubert is running again for the same spot, trustee Lisa Ballou has decided not to run again for her seat.
Those who wish to vote for the trustees must be a Port Jefferson Village resident and be a cardholder “in good standing,” meaning voters cannot have more than $5 outstanding on their library cards. The vote will be held 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Jan. 9, 2019, at the library.
Christian Neubert. Photo by Kyle Barr
Christian Neubert
As the incumbent, Christian Neubert said he feels he has become intimate with the qualities and the issues of the library over his six-year tenure.
“It’s important to not lose sight of the day-to-day processes we have going on here,” Neubert said.
Neubert said the library is missing out on the demographics of fourth- or fifth-graders as well as young professionals. He said if he were elected, he would work toward reaching out to those groups in conjunction with the library and is thinking of integrating the teen center with the main library building.
Lynn Hallarman. Photo by Kyle Barr
Lynn Hallarman
Dr. Lynn Hallarman, the director of Palliative Medicine Services at Stony Brook University Hospital said she is throwing her hat into the ring based on her unique background looking strategically at programs and institutions, as well as with urban planning, development and programming. Hallarman said the biggest changes will come to the library through urbanization, traffic, an aging population and higher taxes.
“The board has to be extremely forward thinking and out of the box in thinking about how a small-town library will survive,” she said.
Nancy Loddigs. Photo by Kyle Barr
Nancy Loddigs
Nancy Loddigs has been a resident of Port Jefferson for more than 30 years and boasts of her experience working in the libraries at Comsewogue School District and both Port Jefferson and Comsewogue public libraries.
The longtime Port Jeff resident said the library has already done a good job in its programming, with various adult programs being the most popular. She said she hopes those programs continue, but that the library will keep up with changing technology in order to stay current.
“I am interested in seeing how the library would be physically changed by incorporating all of these things,” Loddigs said.
Wailin Ng
Wailin Ng, an engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been a Port Jefferson resident for a year, but she has been a patron of the library for close to a decade before that.
Wailin Ng. Photo by Kyle Barr
Ng said there is potential for growth in the number of educational programs the library provides,
especially those that could get kids interested in STEM.
“We can increase the focus on introducing children to science,” Ng said. “We are in a very diverse community, and we have many people from other districts coming here. We need to assess where our needs are for educational programs.”
Joseph Orofino. Photo by Kyle Barr
Joseph Orofino
Joseph Orofino is a lifelong Port Jefferson resident with two kids currently in the Port Jeff school district. As a person who has worked in finance for 25 years, in both an upper management and on a voluntary basis with several local community organizations, he said he would work to make sure the library stays on top of its finances.
“My contribution could be making sure the library stays fiscally solvent,” he said.
When it comes to renovating the library’s currently owned properties, Orofino said the board should look at it from a long-term point of view.
“We need to weigh in on the existing plans and look at how financially they fit into the library on a long-term basis,” Orofino said.
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
Port Jefferson is showered in lights through the holidays. Photo by Kyle Barr
When the calm of the cold settles on visitors to the Village of Port Jefferson, all find reason to seek comfort indoors. Despite it, the village is illuminated in swathes of light all the way from West Broadway to East Broadway, down East Main Street and up Main Street. Here is just a selection of pictures displaying the serenity of the cold night, when the lights dance in the street and in the eyes of people behind the window panes of Port Jeff.
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