Phil Corso is TBR’s managing editor. When he’s not plugging away at stories, he finds joy in the finer things in life, like playing drums, watching hockey and discussing the latest Taco Bell items.
Residents peruse the selection of classic cars and trucks at a previous year’s event. Photo from John Forlenza
The St. Patrick School Car Show, now in its 11th year, is scheduled for Sunday, April 17, with a rain date on April 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of St. Patrick Church and School in Smithtown.
It will include a huge variety of cars, trucks and motorcycles as well as a large section of movie replica cars and monster trucks. Admission is $5 for adults, children free. Show car admission is $15 and motorcycles $5.
The impressive list of attendees for this year’s show includes a wide range of replica cars such as the Long Island Ghostbuster’s Supernatural TV Show Replica Car, Herbie the Love Bug, Smokey and the Bandit, Kitty Knight Rider and the Sheriff Buford T. Justice Car.
The car show will also feature the 9/11 American Patriot Tribute Car, the Suffolk Sheriff’s Department with drunk buggies and the BAT DWI Mobile Unit, a 1958 Plymouth Tribute to Christine, the 1956 Chevy Crankenstein, the 1957 Dragon Wagon, Sal’s Monster Truck and Primetime Trucking’s show truck: Blueprint.
In keeping with its tradition of being a day of “fun for the whole family,” the show will offer activities for children and young people from Jump Around Entertainment. A variety of vendors will offer shopping opportunities for the shoppers in the family. DJ Night Train will provide music, “blowing the dust off your most fondest memories.”
Raffles, giveaways and food will be available and, as the show takes place on the grounds of a church, a special blessing will be offered for all vehicles present.
St. Patrick Church is located at 280 E. Main St. in Smithtown. For more information or if anyone would like to display a car or reserve vendor space, call John Forlenza at 631-588-2696.
The property sits just south of Lake Avenue in St. James, where a potential rezoning has residents wary. Photo by Alex Petroski
By Phil Corso
It’s as literal as “not in my backyard” can get.
A zoning change request for half of a piece of property in St. James has residents worried that they will not only lose a buffer between their homes and nearby businesses, but also that they would see an unwanted increase in property taxes. A representative of Aldrich Management Co. LLC, of East Meadow, stood before the Smithtown Town Board at its March 17 meeting to make its case for changing the residential half of the property — located on the south side of 6th Street near Lake Avenue, close to Caligiuri’s Patio Pizza — to business zoning, but residents and some elected officials said it could do more bad than good for neighbors.
The other half of the property is already zoned for business, and the change would allow for a larger building and a parking lot to be built across the entire parcel.
“It seems to me that the property owner is being a hog,” Smithtown Supervisor Pat Vecchio (R) said of the proposal at a work session on Tuesday morning. “Why would we do that?”
David Flynn, Smithtown’s planning director, said the potential zoning change could result in a building roughly 900 square feet bigger than the current one on the property, if approved. At the end of the March 17 night meeting, Smithtown Councilman Tom McCarthy (R) asked Flynn to come up with alternatives that would allow the property owner more use within existing zoning rules. Flynn delivered his proposals to the board at Tuesday’s work session.
He recommended the town board rejects the proposal because it went against a board-approved plan decades ago that called for a roughly 50-foot buffer between businesses and homes already present at the site. But under the proposal, that buffer would be reduced to about 10 feet, Flynn said.
“It would impact the neighbors,” Flynn said Tuesday. “It isn’t in concert with the town’s plan. … The only benefit I could think of is that the building would be 20 percent bigger, and therefore the tax ratable would be more.”
The property sits just south of Lake Avenue in St. James, where a potential rezoning has residents wary. Photo by Alex Petroski
Vincent Trimarco, who represented the applicant at the March 17 meeting, said there were no set plans for any particular business to take the current structure’s place if the zoning change, which could include almost any commercial purpose, were to be approved.
“If it’s retail that is going to go there, the parking requirement would be one parking space for every 100 square feet of building area,” he said. “So, that would be a standalone parcel that right now has no parking and would probably enhance the ability for cars to park.”
But Sean Durham, who lives on Sixth Street, said the current setup results in cars parking on his residential road, making the potential of more parking daunting to neighbors.
“I’m a concerned neighbor,” he said. “You’re going to be adding parking; what’s going to be there, no idea. It’s already visibly shaken with the infrastructure there that can’t take it.”
His neighbor also stood up against the plan.
“It’s not about the parking, it’s about the increased traffic,” Anthony Martino said. “And No. 2, I don’t see how we can grant something when we don’t know what is going to be there. This gives them an open book. I don’t want an automotive garage there dumping oil and stuff right in my backyard.”
Beyond the parking woes, Martino also said he was concerned about the effect a bigger commercial building would have on his wallet.
“I pay $14,000 in property taxes and can’t go in the back part of my yard. The only savior was these little bit of trees that were going to be left. Now you’re going to have to put a septic in if it’s a commercial building,” Martino said. “It’s going to have be a bigger septic. It’s just more and more use of the property that it’s not [equipped] for. It’s not going to work in that corner.”
The Smithtown Planning Department recommended approval for the proposal, so long as the applicant preserved one large tree that stood in the back parking area of the property. Trimarco said he did not have an issue with such a proposal.
Councilwoman Lynne Nowick (R) suggested that the property owner works with the existing structure, a house, instead.
“That house could be fixed up and used,” she said. “This [proposal] just allows them to go bigger, which really is not in character with the area.”
The St. James man accused of illegally dumping tens of thousands of tons of contaminated construction debris in Suffolk County pleaded guilty to felony charges of endangering the environment this week, Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said.
Thomas Datre Jr., 42, has been on trial since Feb. 23 for the alleged incident, which dated back to 2013 and 2014. He stood on trial with his father Thomas Datre Sr. and four family-operated companies charged with dumping thousands of tons of contaminated construction debris at four locations in western Suffolk County, and pleaded guilty March 30 to four felony charges of endangering the public health, safety or the environment in the third degree. He will be sentenced to up to three years in an upstate prison and must also cleanup the damaged land, Spota said.
According to the terms of the plea, Datre Jr. is responsible for the restoration of Roberto Clemente Town Park in Brentwood to an active playground, soccer field and recreational facility for Brentwood residents, the district attorney said. Datre Jr. is also financially and otherwise responsible for the cleanup and remediation of the environmentally fragile wetlands area on the Islip-Babylon town border in Deer Park and a lot at the corner of Sage Street and Islip Avenue in Central Islip, Spota said.
Datre Jr.’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Dangerous toxins, including dieldrin, asbestos and other contaminants classified as “acutely hazardous” or “hazardous” were detected in the dumped debris. Spota said the dumping investigation, which began in April of 2014, uncovered a scheme “based in greed that left Suffolk County with an environmental catastrophe.”
“Before the defendant is sentenced, he will clean up at his expense the properties he dumped debris on,” Spota said. “Mr. Datre will report on his progress with the cleanup to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the court and the district attorney’s office.”
Datre Jr. also pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges of operating a solid waste management facility without a permit. The sentences on those convictions will be served concurrently, the DA said.
The charges in the indictment against Datre Sr. were dismissed in satisfaction of the plea of Datre Jr. In addition to Datre Jr.’s guilty plea the family-run business, 5 Brothers Farming Corp., pleaded guilty to four counts of endangering the environment in the third degree, one felony plea per each of four sites where New York City building rubble was dumped in Suffolk.
Datre Jr.’s co-defendant, Christopher Grabe of Islandia Recycling, also pleaded guilty to two felony charges of endangering the environment and two misdemeanor charges of operating a solid waste management facility without a permit.
Spota said Grabe, for his role in the dumping of debris at Clemente Town Park in Brentwood and at the Route 111 site in Central Islip will be sentenced to up to six months in jail and five years’ probation.
Grabe also pleaded guilty to a tax fraud felony filed by the district attorney’s Tax Crimes Unit in March of last year. Grabe, 38, “from 2011 through 2013 failed to report about $885,000 of income to New York State, resulting in evasion of approximately $57,000 in income taxes, “ Spota said.
That defendant is now required to pay the unpaid taxes.
In a separate investigation and indictment, Datre Sr. and Clara Datre, representing Daytree at Cortland Square Inc. before Justice Fernando Camacho, acknowledged the firm’s failure to pay prevailing wages to its workers performing tree and stump removal for the Town of Islip. For the plea to the misdemeanor charge failure to pay the prevailing wage, 13 workers employed by Daytree at Cortland Square Inc. will be paid by the company approximately $90,000 in wages that they did not receive while working on the town contract.
A satellite view of the Steck-Philbin Landfill site that the County plans to repurpose in cooperation with the Suffolk County Landbank. Image from Suffolk County Landbank Corp.
A North Shore-based group has answered the county’s calls to revitalize the site of a former landfill in Kings Park.
The Suffolk County Landbank Corp., which is a not-for-profit entity that works with the county to redevelop tax-delinquent properties, put out a request for proposals to completely rejuvenate eight brownfield spots across Suffolk, including the former Steck-Philbin Landfill on Old Northport Road in Kings Park. This week, Stony Brook’s Ecological Engineering of Long Island answered with a proposal to build Long Island’s first community-owned solar farm.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said the county wanted to team up with the private sector to revitalize the various brownfield sites and described them as blights on their respective communities. Shawn Nuzzo, president of Ecological Engineering of Long Island, said his group’s plan had the potential to pump renewable energy into the Island’s power grid almost immediately.
In a statement, Nuzzo described the 6-megawatt solar farm proposal as the largest landfill-to-solar project in New York state that could generate nearly 8 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity in its first year.
“Unlike other recent utility solar projects on Long Island – where large developers have proposed to clear-cut forests, raze golf courses and blanket farmable lands – our proposal takes a dangerous, long-blighted and otherwise useless parcel and revives it as a community-owned solar farm,” Nuzzo said. “The Kings Park Community Solar Farm will be a quiet, low-intensity land use generating nearly no automobile traffic after installation. As equally important, we will return proper ecosystem services to the site through the ecological restoration technique of phytoremediation — using native, low-light, low-lying and drought tolerant plants known for their long-term soil restorative properties.”
A property is classified as a brownfield if there are complications in expansion or redevelopment based on the possible presence of pollutants or hazardous materials, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The site on Old Northport Road is still owned by Richard and Roslyn Steck, according to the Suffolk County Landbank Corporation Request for Proposals, though penalties and interest bring the total owed in property tax on the roughly 25 acres of land to nearly $1.5 million. The property has been tax delinquent since the Richard Steck, Gerald Philbin Development Co. was found to be using the site to dispose of waste that it did not have a permit for in 1986. It is located less than a half mile east of the Sunken Meadow Parkway and about a half mile west of Indian Head Road.
The former Steck-Philbin Landfill on Old Northport Road in Kings Park is one of the eight blighted brownfields that the Suffolk County Landbank requested proposals for repurposing. Image from Suffolk County Landbank Corp.
The property is next to the future location of a multisport complex being developed by Prospect Sports Partners LLC. The $33 million plan for the 44-acre site was approved in July 2015.
“This has been a long time coming and creating policies and procedures for the Landbank has been an arduous task, but I’m beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Suffolk County Legislator Tom Cilmi (R-Bay Shore) said earlier this year when the county sought private sector support to revitalize the site. Cilmi is a member of the board of the Landbank. “Hopefully, soon we’ll see the remediation of this and other properties, which benefits our environment. We’ll put the properties back on the tax rolls, which means millions of dollars of savings for taxpayers.”
Nuzzo said Ecological Engineering of Long Island would finance, build and operate the solar farm through a crowdfunding campaign seeking small investments from everyday Suffolk County residents. The plan, he said, would be to sell 25,000 “solar shares” in the farm at $500 a piece.
“We calculate that the Kings Park Community Solar Farm will generate more than $24 million in gross revenue over a typical 20-year power purchase agreement. We will offer our investors a guaranteed 150 percent return on investment with annual payments deposited over the 20-year lifetime of the agreement,” he said. “Through design efficiencies we will maximize photovoltaic energy output to not only increase profit for our investors but also to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, which today — despite many residential and commercial PV installs — still represents the majority of Long Island’s energy production.”
The plan has already received support from various North Shore elected officials, including state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), who threw support behind Nuzzo in a letter to the Suffolk County Landbank Corp.
“I am always happy to see younger members of our community active in civics, so it was especially heartening to this vibrant young man at the helm of my local civic association,” he said. “Mr. Nuzzo has also worked with the Setauket Harbor Task Force and was responsible for securing the donation of the use of a ‘solar trailer’ from a local solar installer to power our Setauket Harbor Day Festival last September with renewable solar energy.”
Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) described Nuzzo as a “knowledgeable leader on environmental issues” who was “well versed in many modern environmental technologies and practices, including solar projects, LEED process and green technology.”
The Suffolk County Landbank was established in 2013 after its application was approved by the New York State Empire State Development Corporation. Some of the other brownfields included in the request for proposals include Hubbard Power and Light and a gas station on Brentwood Road in Bay Shore, Lawrence Junkyard in Islip and Liberty Industrial Finishing in Brentwood, among others. Cumulatively, the eight properties owe more than $11 million in delinquent taxes as of August 2015.
County lawmakers are taking a proactive approach toward keeping Suffolk kids safe.
The Legislature unanimously voted last week to establish a 13-member Child Fatality Review Team panel tasked with reviewing all childhood fatalities across Suffolk County deemed to be unanticipated, suspicious or the direct result of physical trauma.
Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), who sponsored the bill, said the team’s findings would not be used to assign criminal or civil liability in death cases involving children, nor would they be used for prosecutorial purposes. The main objective, she said, was to make it so similar incidents do not repeat themselves at Suffolk County children’s expense.
In a statement, Hahn, who serves as majority leader in the Suffolk County Legislature, said the panel would work to identify the underlying causes of a child’s death and find what resources, if any, could have prevented that outcome.
“As a culture, we strongly hold that children aren’t supposed to die,” Hahn said. “When that understanding is challenged by a child’s death, natural or otherwise, there is a reflexive and necessary motivation to uncover the reasons why and ways to prevent similar circumstances from leading to additional losses.”
The 13-member panel would be made up of medical, child welfare, social service and law enforcement professionals who would be looking at the facts and circumstances relating to the deaths of children under the age of 18. The deaths would also need to be deemed either unexplainable or the result of violence, including that which is self-inflicted.
“Suffolk County takes the public health and safety of all our residents, especially our most vulnerable, very seriously,” the county’s Chief Medical Examiner Michael Caplan said. “By assembling this review team and collaboratively studying the recent losses of life in Suffolk County, we may be able to prevent similar tragedies in the future and provide potentially life-saving services to those who may be in need of them.”
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s signature is the only thing standing in the way of this bill becoming a law. In a statement, the county executive said he was in favor of the review team and planned on signing it into action promptly.
“The public safety of all of our residents, especially our most vulnerable, is of paramount concern to us,” Bellone said. “By creating this review committee, we are creating an opportunity to analyze and review circumstances surrounding violent child deaths in an effort to prevent similar tragedies and provide potentially life-saving services to those who may be in need of them.”
Hahn said the team would hold its first meeting within 90 days and quarterly thereafter.
The panel’s data would not include any identifiable information and its records would be kept confidential, Hahn said. Any reports generated by the team would also be submitted to the state’s office of children and family services when they are finished.
The North Shore is no stranger so incidents that could qualify for the kind of review Hahn’s panel would be seeking.
In October 2014, 16-year-old Thomas Cutinella of Shoreham-Wading River High School suffered a fatal head injury after colliding with another player during a football game. In July 2014, a Kings Park man was convicted of beating his 43-day-old son to death. In December 2015, an 11-year-old from Kings Park died just days after a van struck her as she crossed a road in her hometown.
The state’s office of children and family services said Suffolk County recorded an average of 12.6 child fatalities annually between 2010 and 2014. The office also found that in the year 2015, average percentage of case workers with more than 15 investigations on their caseload on the last day of each month between July and December was 33 percent.
Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro sifts through a town map with the touch of his finger. Photo by Phil Corso
Managing one of the largest highway departments in New York State takes a lot of work, and Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro (R) has put all of it in the palm of his hand.
As of Jan. 5, the entire department went paperless with a new electronic work order system and by the end of that month, foremen in the field either updated or closed more than 1,500 work orders using a mobile app on town-issued iPads. In an exclusive interview with TBR News Media, Losquadro and his team said the Brookhaven highway department has raised the bar for municipalities across the state.
“To me, this is nothing short of transformative,” Losquadro said. “Improving efficiencies of the highway department has been one of my priorities since taking office three years ago.”
In the past, Brookhaven residents hoping to see something as simple as a pothole being repaired in front of their home would need to file a work order, which an office staffer would enter into a computer, print out and then deliver to a foreman, typically taking five to seven days before resolution. But now, the highway superintendent said, the information can be shared almost immediately.
“We owe that to our customers, because they deserve the response that a customer from any business should get,” Losquadro said, referring to his Brookhaven constituents.
The new paperless system capitalized on already existing geographic information systems the town had invested in over recent years to help create one cohesive platform, allowing town employees to view, update and create work orders in real time, from the field. And through each step of development, Losquadro said foremen and town workers who would be using the technology on a daily basis provided their feedback.
Matt Sabatello, who works in the town’s tech department, worked alongside a dedicated crew of in-house developers to grow the mobile application and make it accessible for all town employees. With more than a decade of experience working with the town already under his belt, Sabatello said he has seen the arc of technological advancement go into overdrive under Losquadro’s direction.
Some of the interactive features Losquadro and his team helped to launch over the past year included color-coded visual queues identifying outstanding work orders, a display of all open work orders prioritized by the date created and a new “follow me” GPS-enabled feature that could be used to identify problem areas as well as track town vehicles when they are out in the field.
“If you see something, create a work order,” Losquadro said, playing off the Metropolitan Transportation Authority slogan, “if you see something, say something.”
And the efficiencies stretch far beyond a run-of-the-mill pothole fix, too. John Giannott, a senior administrator with the highway department, said the mobile technology has made Brookhaven’s response time to serious weather events such as severe snowfall nearly two hours quicker.
“We keep finding new uses for this every day,” he said. “It puts you ahead of the curve, because all your assets are tracked.”
The “green” technology has also allowed the town to apply for state grants and emergency relief funds in a more efficient way, making Brookhaven that much more equipped for more green.
Looking ahead, Losquadro said he hoped to see other facets of Brookhaven government follow suit in implementing such technology. He said he has already seen an interest from the town board to use similar platforms to track constituent complaints.
“I had a vision of how I wanted to transform this department,” he said. “Working with them allowed us to move to this point in less than three years.”
The Suffolk County Police Department arrested the owner of a Stony Brook market over the weekend for allegedly having an employee younger than 18 years old sell alcohol to a minor, authorities said.
Cops combed through several North Shore businesses across East Setauket and Port Jefferson Saturday night before they collared Sein Sein Win, 49, of Stony Brook, who owns the University Asian Market at 1099 Rt. 25A in Stony Brook. Police said she employed a clerk who sold alcohol to a minor and issued her a field appearance ticket.
The business owner was scheduled to appear in court on May 12, authorities said.
Other establishments police inspected that were ultimately in compliance with the law included the BP gas station at 728 Rt. 25A in East Setauket; Shell gas station, located at 195 Route 25A, East Setauket; Port Jefferson Village Grocery, located at 328 Main St. Port Jefferson; 76 gas station, located at 200 Patchogue Rd. Port Jefferson;Kool Mart, located at 600 Hallock Rd. Port Jefferson Station; Speedway gas station, located at 501 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station; Speedy Mart, located at 1034 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station and the Speedway gas station, located at 1445 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station.
East Setauket native to look into North Shore development
Robert Reuter speaks at an event at the Setauket Post Office. File photo
The North Shore’s economic well-being relies on the community coming together and having meaningful conversations, and the Three Village Community Trust is helping to do just that.
The group announced it would be hosting its second talk in the “Join the Conversation” series on Thursday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Setauket Neighborhood House, with Robert Reuter discussing the last century’s commercial development along Route 25A.
Reuter, an East Setauket native, has been involved with Three Village’s various historical and cultural organizations for years and currently is also president of the Frank Melville Memorial Foundation, a founder of the Three Village Community Trust, and a member of Brookhaven’s Historic District Advisory Committee. Reuter earned a bachelor of architecture degree from Virginia Tech and is known for his product design work for Knoll Furniture.
“The Three Village area as we know it today began with communities located for their relationships to the water, both fresh and salt,” Reuter said. “These population centers grew to support their own commercial areas and community centers primarily linked by North Country Road, the major route for east-west travel on Long Island’s North Shore. North Country Road became State Route 25A, and as our population grew and automobiles became ubiquitous, 25A provided the spine for commercial growth of our linear downtown.”
This presentation will concentrate on the Setauket and East Setauket area, illustrating the changes in commercial activity along the North Country Road, Route 25A corridor over the last century. It will also include a segment with photographs and maps from the Three Village Historical Society archive.
The Three Village Community Trust’s “Join the Conversation” series focuses on the quality of life and sustainability in the Three Village community.
“What makes a great community also contributes to its sustainability: people who care and are engaged, great open spaces for nature and for people to enjoy, a vibrant local economy with good jobs, walkability, and a diversity of housing and transportation choices,” the group said in a statement. “Because the Town of Brookhaven is embarking on a land use study and plan for the NYS Route 25A corridor — our own Main Street — most of the series will address issues that relate to community planning and to the corridor. We urge everyone to be a part of these conversations.”
All programs will be held at Setauket Neighborhood House. They are open to all and free — a donation of $5 would be welcome to cover expenses. Refreshments will be served.
Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota outlines the investigation on Wednesday. Photo by Alex Petroski
A makeshift memorial is erected at the scene of the fatal Cutchogue crash. Photo by Phil Corso
By Phil Corso & Alex Petroski
Story last updated 3.17.16, 8:15 a.m.
A fatal crash was the result of a limousine’s dangerous U-turn at a busy intersection in Cutchogue, and on Wednesday, a special grand jury placed the blame on the driver.
Carlos F. Pino, 58, of Old Bethpage, surrendered to police Wednesday and was arraigned on four charges of criminally negligent homicide, four counts of assault, failure to yield the right of way, reckless driving and other traffic violations, Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said. Pino was attempting a U-turn near the intersection of Depot Lane and County Route 48 on July 18 when Steven Romeo, 55, of Peconic, T-boned the limo, killing four and injuring six.
The crash killed Smithtown’s Brittney Schulman, 23, and Lauren Baruch, 24, as well as Stephanie Belli, 23, of Kings Park, and Amy Grabina, 23, of Commack, who were all riding in a limousine in the middle of a weekend wine tour on the eastern part of the Island. The collision also injured passengers Joelle Dimonte, 25, of Elwood, Melissa Angela Crai, 23, of Scarsdale, Alicia Arundel, 24, of Setauket, and Olga Lipets, 24, of Brooklyn. Romeo, the DA said, was operating the truck under the influence of alcohol and was charged with driving while intoxicated the day of the crash.
Pino pleaded not guilty to the charges on Wednesday and was given a cash bail $50,000 and bond of $100,000. His next court date was scheduled for April 19. Romeo also pleaded not guilty to two counts of driving while intoxicated and one charge of driving while ability impaired by alcohol on Wednesday and was released with his next court date set for April 26.
“I think they may have been somewhat surprised,” Spota said when family members of the victims were notified that Pino, and not Romeo, would be indicted as a result of the crash. “They either expected that it would be the other way around, that Romeo would be the party who would be completely at fault, or perhaps it was just a totally unavoidable accident. Indeed, what the grand jury has found out is that it was totally unavoidable, only as to Romeo, but not as to Pino.”
At the scene, Pino had told police he did not see any oncoming traffic, Spota said. But the subsequent investigation revealed why.
The county had been investigating the crash over recent months, and on Wednesday, the DA announced that while Romeo may have been driving while impaired, the risky U-turn still made it nearly impossible for the collision to be avoided. The grand jury conducted a five-hour investigation of the crash and found that Pino had “limited sight lines looking into westbound traffic” because a Jeep Liberty was positioned in the intersection waiting to turn left onto Depot Lane, Spota said in a statement.
Spota said the Jeep Liberty “completely blocked the limo driver’s view of the oncoming traffic in the main travel lanes.” And despite the fact that the main westbound travel lanes were not visible, the DA said Pino failed to take any precaution to make sure he could safely enter the westbound travel lanes and he continued to make the U-turn.
“A perfectly sober Steven Romeo could not avoid this crash. An intoxicated Steven Romeo could not avoid this crash. It was simply unavoidable from Romeo’s perspective,” Spota said. “Romeo can be held criminally responsible for driving while intoxicated but he cannot be held criminally responsible for the crash.”
Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley said during the press conference that unfortunately many limo drivers exiting Vineyard 48 in Cutchogue try to make the dangerous left U-turn that ended up being fatal, because it is the fastest route to head back west.
“There are other ways to head back west, but that’s the easiest way for them to do it,” Flatley said.
There is now a traffic light at that intersection, Flatley said.
Spota said Romeo was heading west at about 55 miles per hour when the crash occurred. He did not see the limo enter the intersection until he was about 200 feet away, the district attorney said.
“Mr. Romeo had only 200 feet to react to the hazard he saw, and stop his vehicle,” Spota said. “Traveling at 55 mph, it would have taken 1.6 seconds to perceive the limo in his path, to realize he must apply his brakes, and then to begin braking. This would leave Romeo with even less distance, 129 feet, to avoid a crash — impossible for him to do. In fact our experts tell us that at 55 mph it would have taken anyone 263 feet to stop and avoid the crash.”
After investigating the crash, Spota said the incident was “unavoidable,” thus keeping a grand jury from indicting Romeo for vehicular manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.
From left, Amy Grabina, Brittany Schulman, Lauren Baruch and Stephanie Belli. Photos from Facebook
Belli, Baruch and Schulman were all decorated members of the national and language honor societies by the time they graduated from Smithtown High School West. Over the summer, schools Superintendent James Grossane said Belli, a 2010 graduate, had an infectious smile and was an enthusiastic student and member of the district’s championship kick line team. Baruch, a 2009 graduate, was best known for her booming laugh and unforgettable smile, Grossane said. Schulman, he said, was another 2010 graduate and had a profound love for her family.
Grabina graduated in 2010 from Commack High School and went on to pursue accounting at Florida State University, ultimately landing a job at Ernst & Young in Tallahassee, Fla.
Members of the current village board of trustees in Head of the Harbor. Photo from the village
The incumbents came up big in Tuesday’s election in the Village of Head of the Harbor.
With Mayor Douglas Dahlgard andtrustees Judith Ogden and Gordon Van Vechten approaching the end of their current terms in April, residents voted to keep them on their side in Tuesday’s village vote.
Dahlgard received 187 to beat out 128 votes for challenger John Lendino of the Watchdog Party, who works as deputy commissioner in the village’s highway department.
Incumbent trustees Ogden and Van Vechten received 196 and 211 votes, respectively, beating out trustees candidate John DePasquale of St. James, who received 147 votes.
Four other Head of the Harbor residents received one or more votes as write-in candidates, including Dina Vivan with four votes, Carmela Lazio with two votes, Theresa O’Brien with one vote and John Kelly with one vote.
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