Suffolk County Police arrested two Smithtown men for allegedly impersonating police officers the night of March 3.
Robert Toomey
Police received a complaint from a male motorist after two men in a black 2012 Chevrolet Tahoe equipped with flashing blue and white lights allegedly stopped his vehicle on southbound Route 111, at the intersection of East Main Street in Smithtown, at 11:13 p.m. on March 3.
Franco Calla and Robert Toomey, who were in plain clothes, approached the motorist and identified themselves as undercover police officers. Calla allegedly demanded the man’s driver’s license, and Toomey allegedly ordered the man to surrender any drugs. Upon further questioning from the motorist, the men admitted they were not police offers, returned to the Tahoe and drove away.
The two men then allegedly attempted to pull over and detain a female driver a short distance ahead, but she drove away after the first motorist drove up and warned her about the men. The Tahoe then continued south on Route 111.
Franco Calla
The male motorist called police and reported the incident. Fourth Precinct officers stopped the Tahoe and arrested the two men in a parking lot, located at 530 Smithtown Bypass in Smithtown, at approximately 11:30 p.m.
Calla, 20, of Port Jefferson Station, and Toomey, 23, of Smithtown, were charged with Criminal Impersonation 2nd Degree and Unlawful Imprisonment 2nd Degree. They will be arraigned at a later date.
The investigation is continuing. Police are asking anyone with information, or who believes they have been a victim, to call the Fourth Precinct at 631-854-8465 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, at podium, and Town of Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim at a press conference Feb. 25. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) and Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim (R) stopped by Smithtown’s senior citizens center to talk about COVID-19 and distribute at-home tests to center visitors Friday, Feb. 25.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone talks with visitors at the senior citizen center. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Before the press conference, county Legislator Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) began delivering the 10,000 at-home COVID-19 test kits received by the town courtesy of the county. The kits were distributed on the day of the press conference and Monday to local assisted living communities, faith-based and small food pantries and community centers in the greater township.
Bellone said he reached out to New York Gov. Kathy Hocul (D) for help with continuing aid to vulnerable populations.
“This was the time to really begin the conversation about how we transition back to normal, to the stage where we are living with the virus, essentially the endemic stage of the virus, and you’re seeing that conversation happening now around the country, as well, which I think is very important,” Bellone said. “As we do that, as we move to that different stage of the virus and manage that risk moving forward, we do still need to be making sure we’re doing everything we can to provide the resources necessary to protect vulnerable populations, senior citizens, those who may have issues with immunity, etc. We need to make sure that things that we know work that are available that they are easily accessible and available to those residents.”
Suffolk officials have been working with various partners such as nonprofits and law enforcement agencies since the beginning of the year to distribute at-home tests, masks and hand sanitizer to the most vulnerable. Bellone said the county has distributed at this point over 200,000 test kits and expects over the next six months that Suffolk will be distributing several hundred thousand more test kits, focusing on the most vulnerable populations.
Bellone added that vaccines, testing and therapeutics have been making a difference.
The county supervisor thanked Wehrheim for his help during the pandemic.
“Supervisor Wehrheim has been an example of the kind of leadership that you need in unprecedented times, and I truly appreciate his partnership and the work that we were able to do together during the pandemic,” Bellone said.
Wehrheim also thanked Bellone for helping the town ensure that no one went without essentials during the pandemic and for the county’s continued support, especially for those on fixed incomes.
“Now families can visit loved ones in nursing homes with easy access to at-home test kits,” Wehrheim said. “Our older seniors can come back to a great senior community and our great senior citizens department to enjoy socializing. Most importantly, we can get back to living again, safer.”
New phase
Bellone said Suffolk County is moving into a new phase of the pandemic.
“We just recently went through what I would characterize as the second most impactful wave of this virus,” he said, adding the omicron wave’s variant infection and hospitalization rates were as high as at the beginning of the pandemic and the county once again saw double-digit deaths.
“We know that this pandemic has caused incalculable devastation, and there will be impacts that we’ll be dealing with for a long time to come, no doubt,” he said. “But, what is clear now is — I think a couple things — we’re moving into a different phase, and this virus is not going to go away. It is going to be here with us. It is something that we are going to be living with.”
A production crew, above, was at the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook Feb. 18 filming for a documentary about the Green Brook. Photo from Ward Melville Heritage Organization
For several decades in the 20th century, many who were Black would refer to “The Negro Motorist Green-Book” to find hotels, restaurants and more that would be accommodating when they traveled in a segregated United States.
Gloria Rocchio, president of WMHO, Rae Marie Renna, Three Village Inn general manager, Ja-Ron Young, documentary creator Alvin Hall and Chrissy Robinson. Photo from Ward Melville Heritage Organization
Recently, Alvin Hall, who has hosted the “Driving the Green Book” podcast about various locations across the U.S., decided to find out if any of the sites on Long Island existed. During his research, he discovered that the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook was featured in the travel guide a couple of times, and he was pleasantly surprised that the hotel was still standing.
Last Friday, Hall and his documentary crew visited the Three Village Inn to film parts of a new documentary series and sat with The Ward Melville Heritage Organization president, Gloria Rocchio, and the inn’s general manager Rae Marie Renna.
The group talked about the travel guide released annually from 1936 to 1966 and published by African-American mailman Victor Hugo Green from Harlem, New York City. The guidebook was the subject of the 2018 movie “Green Book,” winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, starring Mahershala Ali as classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen as his driver during one of the pianist’s Southern tours.
The guidebook was published in the spring before people tended to go on vacation during the warmer months, Hall said. It was small enough to fit into an old-fashioned glove compartment, and businesses were able to write in to request to be in it.
Hall said the production team found the Three Village Inn listed in the guide when they were looking at those issued around 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed. The inn was in the 1963 and 1967 editions, according to WMHO. Places such as The Garden City Hotel, Sky Motel in Lindenhurst and Meadowbrook Motor Lodge in Jericho, which were also listed and are still open, will be part of the series, too.
Hall said it’s impressive that places such as Three Village Inn and the other Long Island sites are still standing decades later as many places across the country listed in the Green Book no longer exist.
Hall’s “Driving the Green Book” podcast featured him traveling from Detroit to New Orleans to search for places listed in the travel guide.
“You discover in town after town that often the routing of the interstate highway system was critical to killing off a lot of these places,” he said. “It wasn’t just that the business went down. A lot of it was just that the city decided to build the interstate highway system or major roadway right through that part of town and a lot of it was to kill off the Black business areas.”
When he worked on his podcast, he was on the road for 12 days in 2021 and conducted 40 interviews. It took about a year to edit all the material for the podcast series. With the television documentary, the hope is that it can be completed in a few months.
The producer said the series looks to see what changed in the North after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, what stayed the same, and how the North and South differed.
A photos of attendees at a music festival at Dogwood Hollow Amphitheater. Photo from Ward Melville Heritage Organization
“It just made sense when you heard some of the stories about Long Island during the time of segregation and Jim Crow in the U.S., and the redlining that banks did out there,” Hall said. “So, it became just an interesting place to explore as sort of emblematic of the larger America.”
Hall said while many thought the North was different from the South, “in reality, a lot of the communities were quite segregated.”
“When Black people came up from the South, they were often put in specific neighborhoods, and a narrative was created around their behavior, their attitudes and everything, and used to exclude them. And, Long Island was no different from the rest of America in that way. I think a lot of people came up from the South thinking it was going to be the land of milk and honey, and it turned out just to be another variation on the South.”
During the visit to the Three Village Inn, Hall along with comedian Ja-Ron Young and college student Chrissy Robinson, who also appear in the documentary, learned about Dogwood Hollow Amphitheater where a festival, featuring various artists organized by Ward Melville, was held. This 2,300 seat amphitheater existed, near where the Stony Brook Village Center’s Educational & Cultural Center is now located, from 1955 to 1970. Rocchio said at first it opened with 500 seats but on the first night 500 more people had to be turned away. Within a year, the occupancy increased. The venue offered shows with jazz performers such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. Entertainers, including Liberace and Tony Bennett, also graced the stage.
“We found the contracts in the safe,” Rocchio said. “We could never do what [Melville] did. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars each season, having people like Liberace, the King Sisters.”
It’s believed that the Three Village Inn was included in the book because the entertainers stayed there after shows, something that wasn’t the case in many parts of the country as many Black artists would perform in a venue, but then not be able to lodge or eat there.
Hall said it was a progressive move during the era to have a show such as the music festival in Stony Brook where white and Black people performed together and sat unsegregated in the audience.
“I think that by creating the Dogwood festival at the theater, having jazz and having the same people stay there, that was very unusual,” Hall said, adding the movie “Green Book” showed how Shirley’s driver had to use the book to find places for them to stay.
Hall said Young was surprised when he saw one of the photos from the festival where there weren’t segregated sections, something that was uncommon in the 1960s and earlier.
“He said he was amazed at how integrated the audiences were in the photographs,” Hall said. “He says when he plays clubs it’s either generally a white audience with a few Black people, or a Black audience with a few white people. He noted that back then, at that festival near the inn, that it was more integrated than he sees today. You could tell he was quite amazed by that.”
Hall said he included Young and Robinson to show them the journey many took in the 20th century.
“They not only hear the stories, but it’s very important that they hear how the people coped with it, but also how the people did not get trapped in bitterness about the situation,” Hall said. “And they emerged from the opposite side of this with grace, and they acknowledged what happened, and they clearly see it, but they did not get trapped in bitterness.”
A home on Old Town Road in East Setauket was destroyed by fire Feb. 18. Photo by Rita J. Egan
A tragic fire in East Setauket has left a father and his 10-month-old son in critical but stable condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.
Lisa Ostrowski holds baby Leo with Steven Ortner in the background. Photo from Carolyn Ortner
The fire began slightly after midnight on Feb. 18 on Old Town Road, and the home next to the Old Towne garden center was quickly engulfed by flames due to the high winds that night. Steven Ortner, 30, was able to escape with his son, Leo. However, Ortner’s fiancée Lisa Ostrowski, 31, died in the fire.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, both its homicide squad and arson section are investigating the fire. A preliminary investigation has determined the cause of the fire to be noncriminal in nature.
A neighbor called 911 to report the fire at 12:01 a.m. Police officers and the Setauket Fire Department arrived on the scene a few minutes later to find the home engulfed in flames. According to SCPD, Ortner escaped through a second-floor window. While he was on the roof ledge, he handed the baby to a passerby below. A responder then took the baby while Ortner tried to go back into the house to save Ostrowski, according to Dave Sterne, the Setauket Fire District’s manager.
Sterne said when Setauket Fire Department Chief Richard Leute arrived on the scene and saw Ortner trying to go inside the home, he advised the father not to do so. Ortner was told to jump and Leute caught him.
Ostrowski was found dead once the fire was extinguished. There were no other occupants at home, and no other injuries were reported.
Barbara Prass set up a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses for Ostrowski and to help Ortner and Leo once they leave the hospital. Prass is a longtime family friend of the Ortners, being a childhood friend of Steven Ortner’s mother Carolyn. Ortner grew up in the Town of Smithtown and Ostrowski is originally from Centereach.
The GoFundMe Page, titled Tragic Fire support for Lisa, Baby Leo and “Steven,” as of Feb. 22, had 1,400 donors and raised more than $90,000.
In a phone interview, Prass said that Orner’s parents, Carolyn and Clayton, returned to Long Island from the Carolinas as soon as they were notified Friday and have been able to see him and the baby. Prass said it’s a painful time and something that one can see on the news but can never imagine going through.
“There are no words,” she said.
Prass said at first the parents were told they wouldn’t be able to visit the hospital due to COVID-19, but finally were given the go ahead to visit with Ortner and Leo.
She said Ortner was able to speak the first day when his parents called him, but he was hoarse and medicated. The father has third-degree burns on his head, face and back of arms. His head had to be bandaged, and the other day the father was put on a ventilator. At first, he asked the family to come and pick up Leo.
“I don’t even think he knew Leo was admitted.” she said, adding the baby is still in the hospital with second-degree burns to his forehead and hands. He also has a collapsed lung.
Ortner is now on a ventilator and doctors are monitoring his organs, also his vision as it was blurry, Prass said.
She said from what the parents could gather when talking with their son, Ostrowski handed the baby to Ortner. According to the family friend, he told his parents, “I had to save the baby. I couldn‘t get back to Lisa. I tried.”
Prass said she told Carolyn Ortner that she is sure Ostrowski died protecting her baby.
“It’s just the worst nightmare,” she said. “I hope Steven can live through that.”
In addition to the GoFundMe page, Prass said she and others are trying to find a place where people can drop off clothes and baby items as many community members have offered to do so.
Community leaders still await land use codes for Route 25A in Setauket after a visioning report was approved by the town in 2017. File photo by Rita J. Egan
In 2016, the Route 25A Citizen Advisory Committee, consisting of community leaders and elected officials, was formed to envision a better Route 25A in the Three Village area.
At the end of 2017, the Brookhaven Town Board adopted the visioning report, resulting from those meetings. The report included recommendations to create a safer roadway with quality buildings, improve pedestrian and bicycle-friendly activities and preserve historic and natural open spaces along the corridor. The next step was for the town to begin developing land use codes based on the findings in the report. The land use planning phase would be the most significant as the new zoning codes developed would help guide the future development of businesses and affect the community for years to come.
George Hoffman, president of the Three Village Civic Association who co-chaired the advisory committee, said there have been hurdles along the way. These obstacles have included the pandemic shutdowns, members of the town Planning Board retiring and former town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) running for and winning her bid as New York State Supreme Court justice. Cartright also had difficulties securing funds for a planning consultant to help write the codes, which would have cost $200,000, according to Hoffman, while she was in office.
Hoffman said there is new hope that the land use planning process will begin as he and Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) will meet with the new planning commissioner at the beginning of March.
Hoffman said the earlier community meetings included the town hiring a planning company to help organize the focus groups and to write the report that was a result of the meetings. The members discussed a variety of subjects, including whether to allow mixed-use development, which many felt wouldn’t be the rightfit for the area.
The civic president said it has been a frustrating journey, especially as a similar process has been conducted in Councilman Dan Panico’s (R-Manorville) district and has been completed.
Hoffman said community leaders and elected officials had a consensus over what was needed.
“I don’t think it was a radical change, but there were areas we were concerned about, “ he said.
Among those areas are the southeast corner of Nicolls Road and Route 25A where buildings have different architecture and signage and the area around East Setauket Pond Park, which lies on the western side of Se-Port Delicatessen on Route 25A. Many also expressed concern regarding the former Baptist church in Stony Brook, west of Stony Brook Road.
“Right now developers are driving what the development will be on 25A and not the community and the town,” he said. “That’s why you want the land use plan.”
Kornreich said he believes there are opportunities “to add amenities that are of the quality that people would expect in a community like this.”
He added in addition to taking the recommendations made by the visioning committee and adapting to land use codes, there are other strategies, too.
He said one opportunity is talking to property owners along 25A in the Three Village area.
“I started sitting down with the property owners in that corridor to see if we can find ways to bring them together to see if we can work together, maybe by them combining their properties and looking at things in a more imaginative way,” he said, adding it may lead to more dramatic and impactful solutions.
“Part of it is just simply using the existing rules that we have now to try to encourage people to redevelop their properties,” the councilmember said.
A seal pup found in the woods in Head of the Harbor is now resting at the New York Marine Rescue Center. Photo from NYMRC
When North Shore residents come across an injured animal, their first instinct is to reach out to a rescue or rehabilitation organization such as Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown.
Good Samaritans used a blanket to load the seal on the bed of a truck. Photo from Sweetbriar Nature Center
Last Friday, Head of the Harbor residents called the center when they found what turned out to be a true seal pup, also known as a gray seal, washed up in the woods on the side of Harbor Road. The animal had been moaning and crying and seemed to be in pain.
Janine Bendicksen, director of wildlife rehabilitation and curator at Sweetbriar, said while the center’s representatives were willing to assess the problem, ultimately they called the New York Marine Rescue Center as Sweetbriar is not equipped to take care of marine animals. The nonprofit located in Riverhead rescues injured marine life and has a hotline, 631-369-9829, to call when people find one anywhere in the state. It’s the only facility equipped in New York to rescue the animals properly.
Bendicksen said, at first, the good Samaritans who found the seal thought it might be an otter.
“I know that most often these animals don’t need help,” Bendicksen said, adding, however, the callers seemed concerned due to it becoming dark outside and saying it looked weak and wasn’t responding.
Due to poor cell service, the good Samaritans in Head of the Harbor couldn’t send a photo to Sweetbriar, so they waved down a passing truck. Using a blanket, they were able to get the seal in the vehicle’s bed and bring it to Sweetbriar. Once the animal experts at the nature center saw that it was a seal pup, they called the marine rescue center immediately to pick up the animal.
“It was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen,” Bendicksen said, adding the seal weighs around 40 pounds. Adult males can grow to be 700 to 800 pounds.
Bendicksen said what many people don’t know is that when it comes to animals such as seals, they are federally protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and shouldn’t be approached or moved. People can be fined if they remove such an animal, however, the Head of the Harbor residents were not liable due to believing the animal was injured.
Maxine Montello, rescue program director with the marine rescue center, said when spotting a seal or other water animals such as sea turtles on land, people should keep 150 feet away from the creature — about the length of three buses.
Montello said seeing seals on the North Shore is rare as they prefer the ocean, but it is possible to see them as they sometimes swim into the Sound looking for food. She said if they are spotted on the beach, most of the time the young seals are just looking for food or relaxing, which is called hauling out. The seals can be separated from their mothers after a few weeks because they are completely weaned and need to learn to fend for themselves.
She said if people spot a seal, they can call the hotline number and someone will be sent out to see if the animal is acting normal through aninfield assessment. Sometimes the seals can be dehydrated, she added, as they don’t drink water and get fluids from eating fish. If they are not eating properly, problems can occur.
Montello said the seals make noises that may sound like they are in distress, but that may not be the case in all circumstances.
“When they’re young, it comes off as a cute little cry, but it actually is their way of defending themselves,” Montello said.
Sometimes they will scratch their face to show how big their claws are or open their mouth to show their big teeth, she added.
The rescued seal pup from Head of the Harbor is about 5 weeks old, Montello said, completely weaned and has been diagnosed with conjunctivitis.
“Our goal is to have the animal show us he can eat on his own,” she said.
The seal, which has not been named yet, is receiving fluid therapy to help with hydration. It will soon be given what Montello described as a milkshake-like drink made of fish and the next step is to feed whole fish to the seal.
The rescue center also ensures that a seal can swim properly before being released. Therapy for an injured or sick animal can vary from four to eight weeks but some recover in 72 hours. Montello said it hasn’t been determined yet how long it will take for the Head of the Harbor seal to be released.
She said the best practice is to step back if a seal is spotted while walking on the beach.
“We also tell people that you’re too close to the animal if you’re changing the animal’s behavior,” Montello said. “So, if the animal was resting and then you approach it and now it’s alert, that means you’re altering that animal’s behavior. The vocalization is a kind of a warning sign to step back. You just don’t want to stress them out.”
For more information on how to assist NYMRC, visit nymarinerescue.org/how-to-help/.
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Local residents gathered at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to protest the continuation of the mask mandate in New York schools. Photo by Rita J. Egan
The front lawn of the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge was a sea of signs and flags Friday, Feb. 11.
Hundreds of parents took their children out of school to protest the face mask mandate remaining in New York state for school districts after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) lifted the mandate for public places Feb. 10.
About 1,000 local protesters joined others across New York in cities such as Buffalo, Syracuse, White Plains and more for a statewide sit-out. An online flyer promoting the event encouraged parents to “empower your kids to go to school without a mask and refuse to wear a mask from Feb. 7-Feb. 10.”
During the Hauppauge protest, parents and children held signs that read “Unmask our kids,” “Free the children,” “No masks. We can’t breathe,” and “No one has seen my smile since kindergarten … that was two years ago. Let me smile.” Drivers passing the rally on Route 347, including sanitation men and a postal worker, honked their horns to show solidarity with the protesters.
Adrianne Stanton, of East Northport, said she brought her children, who are in first grade and pre-K, to the rally along with her nieces. All of them held signs that they made themselves.
“We want our children to have a normal childhood, to be able to go to school and to have the memories that we did growing up,” the mother said. “ And, to fight for, as parents, to be able to choose what is best for our kids.”
Casey Austin, of Northport, said one of her daughters told her students aren’t even able to drink water when they’re thirsty and have to wait for water breaks.
“I have five little ones that have been living in this pandemic for the last two years of their lives, and it’s got to change now,” she said. “Three of them suffer from learning delays and speech impediments because they are not allowed to even articulate their words correctly. And it’s time for everyone to wake up and stand up and fight for them — and be done with this.”
Douglas Cerrato, of Kings Park, attended the rally and was one of the speakers. He recently declared his intention to run for the board of education in the Kings Park school district. In a phone interview after the rally, Cerrato said while it has been difficult for his kids to wear the masks, he has found the teachers in Park View Elementary, where his children attend, to be fantastic with working with the students.
Cerrato said it’s important to give parents a choice, adding while more people have been speaking up at school board meetings, some have still been hesitant. The rally was encouraging to Cerrato, who stressed he’s not anti-mask but for choice.
“I think you have a lot of people that were on the fence about being vocal becoming vocal,” he said.
Just a few of the cookies designed by Kim Carter of Rolling Pin bakery in East Setauket. Photo by Rita J. Egan
During the pandemic, small business owners have been looking for ways to get customers’ attention. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, a local bakery is providing an option that stands out from the average box of chocolates.
Kim Carter, of Rolling Pin, holds one of the cookies she decorated. Photo by Rita J. Egan
When people first walk into Rolling Pin bakery in East Setauket they’ll spy on the shelves colorful cookies wrapped in individual clear bags. The works of art are created by Kim Carter, the bakery’s decorator, who is currently busy preparing cookies for Valentine’s Day featuring cute couples, colorful lovebirds, adorable animals and more. Every holiday for about eight years, Carter said she comes up with novelty cookies for customers to purchase to give away as gifts and Feb. 14 is no different.
When Evelyn Haegele began working at the bakery a few months ago, she was floored by her new co-worker’s talents. Her cookies are “just incredible,” she said. “Each one is a work of art. I felt like, ‘Kim, you really deserve to be noticed.’”
Carter has been working for the bakery, which is owned by David Dombroff, for 13 of the nearly 27 years it has been open. The decorator said as each holiday approaches she looks for inspiration by searching on the internet. She said each cookie takes a different amount of time to create. Making the sweet treats involves a few steps, from first baking them to then cutting them into different shapes. She then creates backgrounds for each cookie by dipping it in a color she has chosen. After the background is ready, she creates the outline for the cookie and fills it in freehand.
Just a few of the cookies designed by Kim Carter of Rolling Pin bakery in East Setauket. Photo by Rita J. Egan
“It takes practice and there has to be the right consistency of the icing,” Carter said. “If not, it will be running or too soft or too hard to squeeze.”
In addition to cookies, Carter decorates cakes, too. Before she started working for Rolling Pin, she worked for various bakeries and has 20 years of experience in the field. Carter’s decorating talent is one that naturally came to her.
“Since I was a kid I just liked art,” she said. “Then, one day, I said, ‘Hey, I can decorate a cake. I see people doing it. I can do it.’”
Her favorite holiday cookies are the ones she makes for Easter, Halloween and Christmas, and the decorator said she feels bad during Father’s Day because it’s one of the holidays that’s difficult to come up with themes that would be fitting for a cookie.
The bakery also takes custom orders for parties and showers. Sometimes, Carter said, the shapes are unique, and she creates a temporary cookie cutter out of tin until she can find one to buy.
Haegele said her favorite cookies since she started working at the bakery are the Halloween and Christmas cookies, including one that was shaped like a snow globe with sugar that looked like glass.
“What she did was amazing,” Haegele said.
The Rolling Pin bakery is located at 1387 Route 25A, East Setauket.
Local elected officials are joining forces to tell Albany that their towns and villages will not lose zoning control.
During her State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) spoke of creating more affordable housing options. When the 2022 State of the State book was released, the proposed plan, found on pages 130 through 131, stated that it would require all towns and villages in New York state to allow accessory apartments, which in turn would effectively eliminate single-family zoning laws.
The proposed plan spurred Town of Brookhaven officials to call a press conference Feb. 3, while others have spoken out via statements. The proposed legislation would require municipalities to allow one accessory dwelling unit using backyard cottages, attics, garages and basements. The plan is one that the State of the State describes as providing “an affordable multigenerational housing option that helps families live closer together.”
While local municipalities would still have a say in minimum and maximum size requirements, local zoning authorities would not be able to prevent reasonable new construction, the governor said.
Huntington
In the Town of Huntington, accessory apartments may be allowed when someone listed on the deed resides at the dwelling. The living space cannot be less than 300 square feet or more than 650 square feet and must have two bedrooms or less. The accessory apartment must be attached to the home.
Supervisor Ed Smyth (R) is against Hochul’s plan.
“This is an election year overreach by the governor that no one in their right mind should support,” Smyth said. “It has bipartisan opposition at all levels of government for good reason: It would eliminate local control of development and hand it off to extremists in Albany.”
At press time, Huntington announced they would be part of a county press conference on Feb. 10 to comment further on the issue.
Smithtown
In the Town of Smithtown legal accessory apartments with a valid mother/daughter permit from the Building Department are the only ones permitted with limited exceptions including older two-family homes that were grandfathered in. Rules differ in the town’s villages.
Town of Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim (R) said in a statement he fears stripping local zoning control “would only result in a mass exodus.”
“The harsh reality is that Long Island, especially Suffolk County, lacks the modern infrastructure to handle the population increase which this proposal would create,” the supervisor said. “The environmental impacts alone should terrify every Long Islander. We have outdated wastewater systems underground, roads in major need of repair, archaic stormwater infrastructure and in the near future will have nowhere to put our trash. These are the issues that require resolution from the state, not removing local zoning control. This proposal will create a strain on the school system, increased property taxes, amplify traffic and burden local resources which are already stressed. Furthermore, people move out to the suburbs because the perception of the American Dream is still that quaint neighborhood home, picket fence and all, where they can raise a family. As public servants, it’s our duty to preserve and protect that dream.”
In Head of the Harbor, Mayor Doug Dahlgard echoed the sentiments.
“Taking away local zoning control with a broad brush is not acceptable and will be met by opposition claiming the character of our communities will change for the worse,” the mayor said. “Starting a conversation about how to allow generations of a family to stay together on Long Island, on the other hand, makes sense.”
Wehrheim agreed that the issue of affordable housing needs to be discussed and would welcome a task force consisting of local, county and state officials using proven studies and incorporating successful methods that could create affordable housing options in appropriate areas such as a downtown business neighborhood near a train station.
Congressmen support local officials
Town officials have received moral support from their congressmen. U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY3) in a press release criticized Hochul. Suozzi will run in the Democratic primary for governor in June against Hochul
“Governor Hochul’s radical proposal would take away zoning control from municipal governments, erode local government authority and end single-family housing across New York,” Suozzi said. “Hochul’s plan to eliminate home rule is not what we need. I support affordable housing, building up around downtown train stations and helping the homeless. I oppose eliminating home rule and ending single-family housing.”
The presumptive Republican nominee for New York State governor, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) said in a joint statement with Brookhaven officials that Hochul “isn’t focused on real solutions.”
“This blatant attack on suburban communities will end single-family housing as we know it, strip local control away from the New Yorkers who live there, tank the value of their homes, overcrowd their previously quiet streets, and on top of it all, not do anything to solve our affordable housing problem,” Zeldin said.
When foxes are spotted in a neighborhood, residents may wonder if the animal poses any danger to them or their dogs and cats or if they have rabies because they’re out in the daytime. However, experts say seeing foxes out during the day doesn’t necessarily indicate rabies.
Tod the fox is currently recuperating from mange at Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown. Photo from Sweetbriar
“Generally, foxes are most active at night or during twilight, however they can be active at other times of day when food demands are higher such as needing to conduct additional foraging to feed young,” according to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officials. “During the winter months, foxes may be more inclined to hunt during the day, so a sighting in daylight hours is often not an indication of a sick animal.”
The DEC added that foxes should be viewed at a distance while they are searching for their necessities.
“If foxes are being sighted near residential homes it is probably because some resource need is being met, i.e., shelter, such as under decks or sheds, access to food, where rodents or other natural forage are located.”
Janine Bendicksen, curator and director of wildlife rehabilitation for Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown, said sometimes a person may see a fox circling. This is a result of people who feed them, which is not a good idea as they begin to depend on humans for food. Because of this dependency, when a fox sees a person, they begin circling in anticipation of being fed.
“The fox is definitely more afraid of you than you are of it,” she said. “Foxes have what they love to eat. They love to eat mice. They love moles, rats, and won’t necessarily go after your cat or dog. Could they? Absolutely. But chances are they’re going to be more afraid of the dog than it is of them.”
While people don’t have to worry about their dogs and cats if foxes are spotted, they do have to keep an eye on their chickens. Bendicksen said people who find that foxes get into their chicken cages need to house the birds in an enclosure that is completely fox proof because the animal can get to the chicken easily if there are any substantially sized holes.
Tod the fox was found outside someone’s back door. Photo from Sweetbriar
Fox population
Bendicksen said there hasn’t been an uptick in the fox population necessarily, but with more people at home during the pandemic, she believes more residents have noticed them than they did in the past. Even the number of calls they have received about injured wildlife, in general, have increased over the last couple of years, she said, as people are spending more time outdoors.
The fox population is a cyclical one. When it’s a good summer and they can get more than adequate amounts of food, she said, in turn, the animals have many pups.
However, this can result in overpopulation and the foxes get mites, which cause the contagious disease known as mange. The foxes can die from the disease. When another good summer comes along, the population can grow again.
“The population does go up and down based on food and based on the disease that keeps them in check,” Bendicksen said.
Recently, the nature center saved a fox with mange when a resident found him curled up outside their front door.
“He would not have survived the winter,” the wildlife director said. “We literally got him just in the nick of time. His hair just started to fall out. His eyes were just starting to shut. He would have died of secondary infections and starvation had he not come in.”
The fox, named Tod by the staff, will now spend the winter with the nature center and be released in the spring when he is “older and wiser,” according to Bendicksen.
Injured foxes
If a person sees an injured fox, they should contact an animal rescue such as Sweetbriar (631-979-6344, www.sweetbriarnc.org).
Bendicksen said foxes are difficult to catch, and they have to be extremely sick for a person to catch them. She pointed out that people rarely see foxes hit along the road because of their speed and other skills.
“The foxes are truly super intelligent, super shy, super careful, and so to catch a sick fox, they have to be in pretty bad shape,” she said.
“Supervisor Wehrheim has been an example of the kind of leadership that you need in unprecedented times, and I truly appreciate his partnership and the work that we were able to do together during the pandemic,” Bellone said.
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