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TBR News Media covers everything happening on the North Shore of Suffolk County from Cold Spring Harbor to Wading River.

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Urban Air Lake Grove Adventure Park will re-open for business on Saturday, September 26 at 11 a.m., more than six months after it voluntarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with new cleaning and health protocols, creating a fun and safe indoor play experience for kids and families.

Located at 3147 Middle Country Road, Lake Grove, behind the Smith Haven Mall, the 48,000 sq. ft. indoor Adventure Park will include the Urban Air Sky Rider Indoor Coaster, a winding track that has young thrill-seekers flying along 30 feet in the air.

“The last six months have been extraordinarily challenging for kids and families. Kids want a place of their own to reclaim their sense of adventure and excitement,” said Urban Air Lake Grove co-owner David Wolmetz. “New Yorkers have proven we know how to get out into the world in a way that protects everyone’s health. We’re looking forward to hearing the park filled with laughter again.”

The park has been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized, including the play spaces, bathrooms and food service areas. Among the new health and safety protocols being put into place:

  • The park will operate at 25 percent capacity, with a new e-commerce ticketing system managing two-hour timed entry for all guests. Tickets are purchased online in advance.
  • To encourage social distancing, tickets will be offered for purchase at the door on a capacity only basis.
  • Guests will be given colored wrist bands corresponding to the time on their tickets and Urban Air staff will monitor the process to ensure all guests are able to safely experience the park and exit at their appointed time.
  • All Urban Air Lake Grove staff will submit to daily temperature checks, wear masks and practice frequent hand washing.
  • All guests will submit to temperature checks upon entry to the park and in compliance with NYS requirements, will wear masks while in the park.
  • Hand sanitizer kiosks have been installed throughout the park.
  • Every hour, play spaces and high touch areas will be wiped down and guests will be urged to use hand sanitizer. All individual-use attractions are wiped down after each use.
  • A new Urban Cafe ordering app is available to limit human to human transaction around food items. Guests can order on their phones and pick up when ready.
  • Plexiglass barriers and social distancing have been installed at ALL point of sale registers.
  • Tables and chairs are all spaced six feet apart in accordance with social distancing protocols.
  • The park HVAC system has been upgraded with MERV-13 anti-microbial filters, as suggested by NYS re-opening guidance.

“We have been working with the local officials and with guidance from the CDC to develop an appropriate reopening plan for Urban Air Lake Grove. After careful consideration, we decided to reopen our park with new health, physical distancing and capacity protocols and new ticketing procedures,” said Keith Handler, Co-Owner of Urban Air Lake Grove. “We believe in the power of enriching lives and creating joy through healthy, active play, and we have been working tirelessly to prepare to welcome you back into a clean, safe and fun family environment. We have always maintained stringent cleaning procedures that we are proud of and we’ve heightened our standards and protocols to keep you and our employees healthy and safe.”

In addition to the wall-to-wall trampoline adventures, adrenaline junkies will thrill to experience the following attractions:

  • High Ropes, an obstacle course in the sky;
  • Spin Zone Bumper Cars, where you can bump into your friends and send them into an uncontrolled spin;
  • The Drop Zone, an enormous inflatable landing pad perched below a series of trampolines;
  • The Runway Tumble Track, a unique attraction for flips, handsprings and cartwheels;
  • The Slam Dunk Zone, which allows guests to emulate their favorite basketball heroes with a trampoline-induced slam dunk of their own; and
  • Urban Air’s exclusive Urban Warrior Course™ and Battle Beam.

Urban Air also features the Urban Café, with food, drinks and snacks available for purchase. The location is available for birthday parties, corporate retreats, team building and private events.

For more information, call 631-861-4125 or visit www.urbanairtrampolinepark.com.

Photos courtesy of Urban Air Lake Grove

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

It’s difficult to comprehend that women didn’t always have the rights that they have now, and many of those rights were only gained a few short decades ago.

Imagine when women weren’t able to open a bank account, have credit cards or a mortgage without a man’s signature until the passing of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974. Considering a woman founded our media company in 1976 and still sits in the publisher’s seat, the thought is unfathomable to many of us.

One of the trailblazers who worked for women’s rights to manage their own finances and their own lives was Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She accomplished this feat as the co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. The void her death leaves behind is immense. Let us remember all the work that’s been done and is still being fought for true equality. Now with her seat locked in political turmoil, we believe her legacy needs to be respected more than ever.

What we need to remember is sometimes the champion for equal rights, Ginsburg, needed to represent men to work toward the goal of all being treated equally. In 1972, Ginsburg argued in front of the Supreme Court when she and her husband represented Charles Moritz, a bachelor who was unable to take a tax deduction for taking care of his sick mother as a woman or a divorced/widowed man would have been able to do. It was an ingenious tactic, showing how any discrimination on the basis of sex was harmful to the whole, rather than one select group. Throughout her career, Ginsburg was the champion of many causes that have had a positive effect on both men and women of all colors and orientations. She believed that everyone has a right to vote, to access health care including birth control, to obtain an abortion, and that when two people of the same sex fall in love, they have the right to get married just like everyone else.

Replacing Ginsburg will be no easy task, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. President Donald Trump (R) said he will nominate a woman to the seat and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) is eagerly waiting in the wings for the process to begin, despite arguing in 2016 that Supreme Court nominees should not be put to the bench in an election year. He and other Senate Republicans did not even hold a hearing for former President Barack Obama’s (D) court pick Merrick Garland that year. It’s the kind of House Rules situation you would expect more from a shady casino owner than the highest legislature in the land. It’s the kind of political skullduggery that does irrevocable lasting harm to democracy itself.

Locally, vigils held by two separate left-wing groups on Long Island’s North Shore have called for Ginsburg’s replacement to wait until after the election, and we’re inclined to agree. The dangerous precedent the U.S. Senate has engendered goes well beyond politics, but to the heart of democracy itself. There cannot be one rule for one party and another rule for the other, effectively eschewing several basic tenets of the Constitution.

There is a reason Ginsburg held on for so long, much longer than any of us would have stayed in such a stressful and high-profile position despite having five bouts with the cancer that eventually led to her death. One of her last statements dictated before her death was, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

The American value of equality for all is one that seems to be lost in our divisive times. We must honor Ginsburg’s legacy by remembering this ideal by moving toward the future and not slipping back to the 1950s where it was believed that women were only capable of being, as the saying goes, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. If that were true, we would have never experienced people like RBG.

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Smithtown students rally in front of the Section XI building on Route 111. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Parent Ray Zuppa, below, said it playing sports can be done safely when wearing a mask.
A protester's sign rests on the statue of Richard Smith. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Students from other districts rallied with Smithtown athletes Sept. 18. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Students from other districts rallied with Smithtown athletes Sept. 18. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Students from other districts rallied with Smithtown athletes Sept. 18. Photo by Steven Zaitz
A student throws a football in front of the Richard Smith statue on Route 111. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Smithtown students and parents rally in front of the Section XI building on Route 111. Photo by Steven Zaitz

By Steven Zaitz

Richard “Bull” Smith, who founded Smithtown over 350 years ago, never played quarterback. Nor could he run the pick and roll in basketball, turn a 6-4-3 double play in baseball or swim the 100-meter breaststroke.

However, his statue was smack in the middle of about 100 student-athletes, coaches and parents Friday, Sept. 18, as they gathered to protest the Section XI decision to suspend all high school sports due to the coronavirus until at least January 2021. They met right on the front lawn of Section XI headquarters on Main Street and Route 111 in Smithtown.

Groups representing Kings Park, East Islip, Northport, Commack, Ward Melville and Connetquot joined Smithtown residents, who began their protest at the school district’s administration earlier on New York Avenue, and held up signs imploring the decision makers to rethink this delay. Many of these devoted and impassioned protesters were at the same location, doing the same thing Tuesday, Sept. 15.

One of these protesters was Ray Zuppa, an attorney from Smithtown, who feels that high school athletic facilities are far less dangerous than other places that kids might go. He is also a strong believer that not having the chance to play sports is devastating to the youngsters’ development.

“I believe Section XI has let the kids down,” Zuppa said later during a phone interview. “I realize it is a serious virus, but the science supports that it’s difficult to catch outside and when wearing a mask.”

Zuppa’s son, Isaiah Zuppa, is the starting quarterback of the Smithtown West Bulls and was one of the highest-rated passers in Suffolk County in 2019. He was also in attendance at the protest.

“Isaiah is a shell of himself,” the father said. “It’s not just about the games, but all these kids are missing the camaraderie, the discipline, team dinners and the bonding — and you know what, the parents are missing it too. Sports is essential to a lot of families.”

Zuppa coached his son for many years in the Suffolk County Police Athletic League, and when the father was asked if he took solace in the plans to have football season in March, he was skeptical. 

“I think this March thing is just a way to kick the can down the road,” he said.  “I don’t think it’s really going to happen, and this is just a way for them to bide their time.”

The masked protesters were rewarded by the encouragement of honking car horns, and they created a party-like atmosphere as they tossed footballs, sang team fight songs and ran through tumbling routines at the foot of Smith’s statue. However, Tom Combs, executive director of Section XI, and the main target of the protesters’ ire, did not address the crowd or make an appearance from his nearby office.

“While this was a difficult decision, we feel it was the best move for the health and safety of everyone involved,” Combs said in a Sept. 11 statement on the Section XI website. “We still have a lot of hard work ahead in planning and executing on the three seasons across six months in 2021, but we look forward to the challenge and collaboration with our member schools and providing an impactful experience for our student-athletes and coaches.”

Despite Combs’ nonappearance, Zuppa still thinks these public showings are beneficial.

“They know we’re out here,” he said. “They know how we feel.”

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Photo by Tom Caruso

THREE’S COMPANY

Tom Caruso of Smithtown visited the David Weld Nature Sanctuary in Nissequogue over Labor Day weekend and noticed several butterflies and bees clustering on thistles in the meadow. He snapped this beautiful photo showing two different butterflies and a small wasp (in center) all sharing one flower. He writes, ‘Nice way to bring summer to an end.’

Send your Photo of the Week to leisure@tbrnewspapers.com

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Photo from SBU

The coronavirus pandemic is a time like no other in U.S. history. The virus, which hit the New York area particularly hard, had Stony Brook University and Stony Brook University Hospital on high alert for months on end.

The hospital not only saw the heroic actions of doctors and nurses already on Stony Brook Medicine’s staff, but was also assisted by visiting nurses; medical students who graduated early to help fight on the frontlines; doctors and researchers jumping on ways to find a possible cure as quickly as possible; and essential workers who played an integral role in ensuring every process and procedure ran as smoothly as possible.

Students on the Stony Brook University campus during the Fall 2020 semester are wearing masks as a precaution against COVID-19 spread. Photo from SBU

On the University’s main campus, 3-D shields were printed as a PPE shortage was looming; hand sanitizer was created by several chemists in the Chemistry laboratory; and a prototype of a respirator was put together by a team from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences which could be assembled quickly and used if necessary.

Now, Stony Brook University Libraries has announced the development of “Documenting COVID-19: Stony Brook University Experiences,” a new digital archive project established to collect, preserve, and publish the institutional history of Stony Brook University during this unprecedented moment in history.

“The archive will primarily be formed from submissions received directly from students, faculty, staff, and alumni that document life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews, first-hand accounts, flyers, photographs, and more will be important sources to consult in the future to study, interpret, and derive meaning from this historic time period,” said Kristen Nyitray, University Archivist and Director of Special Collections and University Archives at Stony Brook University.

All from the Stony Brook University community are invited to contribute to the archive by submitting content or participating in an interview via a dedicated web page, “Documenting COVID-19: Stony Brook University Experiences” from which the library project team will collect information, photos, videos, personal stories and other COVID-19 related information.

For more information, visit www.library.stonybrook.edu/special-library-initiatives/documenting-covid-19/.

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File photo

When Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) announced the 30-member police reform task force last Wednesday, Sept. 9, there was not much in the way of fanfare for what should be a big moment for the general police reform movement.

Like the sound of a flat trumpet announcing the arrival of the king, it did not create any kinds of sensation other than pursed lips and a general groan from the community at large.

The news has left people on both entrenched sides of the police debate uncomfortable. One side probably thinks it is a dangerous waste of time, the other believes it to be an attempt at lip service, one piloted by the same people advocates accused of sustaining bad practices within departments.

The muted and sometimes hostile response to the new task force is likely due to how long it took the county to actually release its own plans. It has been over three months since Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) released his first executive order mandating that the government actually looks into this. Police reform advocates have hounded his heels since then but the county exec stood mum. Perhaps he, like others, was confused by what the county should have been doing to prepare for what is likely seen as another unfunded mandate from New York State.

But this is bigger than that, or at least, it should be. Bellone and other police officials should have been upfront about what they were going to do and how they would do it. At least then they wouldn’t have been in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation as they are now. Especially because without a plan, Cuomo has promised municipalities’ police departments could lose state funding.

Suffolk County police officials throughout the entirety of the police debate have touted recent advancements in anti-bias training and department reform that was happening even before Minneapolis man George Floyd was killed at the hands of police.

And to say there haven’t been significant efforts would be a disservice to the several notable people within the police department who have strived to increase inclusivity and enact change for the better. Most times, however, it’s better to let the people themselves tell you if that change has been enough, rather than just sitting in the echo chamber that is bureaucracy.

The 30-person task force is effectively evenly split between Suffolk County officials/police reps and other religious, racial and community groups. This disparate set of characters plans to hold eight meetings, one for each precinct plus the East End, then using another large survey the county has announced alongside the task force, craft some sort of policy plan.

The Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association will of course advocate for no changes to police budgets or personnel. Their leadership has been staunch supporters of Blue Lives Matter rallies and have routinely decried any and all Black Lives Matter protests, even though in the county the vast majority have been peaceful and civil. That’s not to say police don’t have the right to speak up for themselves. We know just how much work goes into serving a community as an officer — from the holidays not spent with families to the danger they put themselves in every day. But we need to listen to communities, especially the large communities of color, for whether they feel police actually treat them the way many of us on the North Shore feel we are positively reflected.

We at TBR News Media think there should be a minority report, or potentially multiple minority reports, to go along with whatever result gets crafted before the governor’s April 2021 deadline. That way we can see what was left on the cutting room floor and, more importantly, how either police reps or reform advocates feel things should be done if they had their way.

It’s time to stop thinking of this task force as an afterthought and move toward some consensus that leads to real change.

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Rabbi Chaim Grossbaum sounds the Shofar, a hollowed-out ram's horn used to usher in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Photo from Village Chabad

By Rabbi Chaim Grossbaum

Can we cancel 2020? Like simply skipping directly to 2021? Will anyone be upset about it?

I have seen many funny memes about 2020. But one particular meme got me to laugh pretty hard. It’s actually not about 2020 but about the current Jewish calendar year we are about to close, 5780.

“They say our actions on the High Holidays determine what will be decreed for the upcoming year. So whatever the heck you guys did last year, please don’t do it again!”

LOL.

After LOL’ing, it got me thinking about “cancelling 2020” and “cancelling 5780.” And then, a quote came to mind. A quote that is simply so perfect for our situation.

The quote is from Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe. He was imprisoned and tortured in Soviet Russia because of his work to spread Judaism behind the Iron Curtain.

After he was released from prison, his disciples asked him how he felt about it. He replied, “If I would be offered millions to experience one more moment of suffering – I wouldn’t buy. And if anyone would want to pay me millions to take away one moment of my suffering – I wouldn’t sell!”

The Rebbe didn’t elaborate further, but I think that the message is simple. Challenges are difficult, but they can also uplift you. One should never choose to experience challenges, but in hindsight we can appreciate how it made us better.

So I don’t want to cancel 5780.

Not the moments that forced me to take a step back from the hustle of life.

Not the moments that reminded me what’s important and what’s less important.

Not the new appreciation of what is essential, and what is not truly essential.

Not the beauty I saw all around me, when the entire country simply rallied to help one another.

Not the feeling of closeness to G-d when I prayed from the bottom of my heart that things should get better already.

Not the time spent with my family with very little distraction.

Do I want more of it? Not even if you pay me millions. But I do know that 5780 had many gifts. Hidden, but gifts nonetheless.

Onward and upward!

May we all be blessed with a Shana Tova U’metuka. A happy, healthy and sweet new year up ahead for ourselves and our loved ones.

Rabbi Chaim Grossbaum is the senior rabbi and spiritual leader at the Village Chabad Center for Jewish life & Learning in East Setauket. Visit EnjoyHighHolidays.com for a schedule of COVID-safe outdoor holidays at Village Chabad. Masks, social distancing, and preregistration is required. To RSVP for a “60 Minute Power Hour” Rosh Hashanah service and Shofar blowing on Sept. 20, visit MyVillageChabad.com/HHPowerHour.

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Families are able to pick up essentials at Give Kids Hope, located on Nesconset Highway in Port Jeff Station. Photo by Courtney Rehfeldt

By Courtney Rehfeldt 

As many Long Islanders face financial hardship and food insecurity, struggling to make ends meet, Melissa Paulson, of Port Jefferson, is helping communities in need.

Donations for a back-to-school drive hosted at Give Kids Hope in Port Jefferson Station. Photo by Courtney Rehfeldt

A yellow wreath adorns the door to the Port Jefferson Station outreach center Give Kids Hope that Paulson recently opened along Nesconset Highway. Families who come to the center can pick up free food and other items, including toiletries and even toys or clothes. 

“It has been truly sad to see the amount of people who struggle with providing everyday basic needs for their family,” Paulson said. 

Eight years ago, Paulson initially started Give Kids Hope as a nonprofit to support children fighting cancer before pivoting towards helping the general public. 

“I started Give Kids Hope after my daughter was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma,” she said. “Having been faced with such a tragedy, I knew that my only hope was prayer and the hospital staff around us. The simple things, such as a toy gifted to my daughter through the worst time, cheered her up. I wanted to be that person to help other children going through the same thing.” 

Unfortunately, Paulson faced yet another challenge when her husband lost his job. Just as before, Paulson’s own challenging experience inspired her to help others in the same position. 

“After my husband lost his job for 16 months, we were faced with the same situation of families who are struggling,” the outreach center owner said. “Luckily, we had our savings account and family to help us through that time. I learned that even working people can lose everything so easily without any notice or warning. We are grateful to have had the option to come back from that situation. However, most families don’t have the support from others or other things to keep them afloat. I wanted to be that person that others can lean on during their crisis.” 

Paulson noted that the pandemic and subsequent job losses on Long Island has created a massive demand for food and daily essentials. She reported that Give Kids Hope assists 15 to 30 families a week with food items, and some weeks that number is even higher, averaging 40 to 60 families. 

“We have seen every type of hard situation that is imaginable,” she said. 

Even before the pandemic, Paulson said many Long Island families were already struggling and that the need for future assistance can occur at any time. 

“I feel the community isn’t aware of how many families are truly in need of basic essentials and living needs,” Paulson said. “Even for a working family who hits a crisis, it becomes a downward spiral of effects. There isn’t enough assistance out there that allows families to receive what they truly need. Some people don’t qualify for government assistance due to a few dollars over the allowed limit. Our goal is to provide assistance and support to them through their time of need.” 

Before opening the Give Kids Hope location in Port Jefferson Station, Paulson ran the operation out of her home. 

“We had a very generous donor who donated $5,000 to get us started,” she said. “We were limited with space and ability when doing it in my home. Now we can open 4-5 days a week for pantry items and other types of assistance.” 

Paulson emphasized that it has been challenging to raise funds, and notes that Give Kids Hope relies on the community’s support to keep it flourishing. 

“Our center is 100% free to others in need,” the Port Jeff resident said. “Since we opened, we have helped 662 families with clothes, toys, and food assistance. A lot of families are walk-ins that don’t have a computer. Our center has been a huge asset to the community and has grown tremendously. We have held free shopping events, back-to-school supplies drives, and we are currently working on a Halloween costume drive, Thanksgiving, and our big toy drive for Christmas.”

Paulson also added that the center is looking for volunteers and takes food and item donations. 

Give Kids Hope is located at 4390 Nesconset Highway in Port Jefferson Station. They can be contacted online by searching Give Kids Hope on Facebook or by calling 631-538-5287.

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Francis Halstead adds flowers to a railing in the Vanderbilt Mansion courtyard.

Francis Halstead is one of 11 garden designers and local nurseries taking part in the third annual Gardeners Showcase at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport through September, along with the Vanderbilt’s corps of volunteer gardeners. He is the first participant, however, to plant flowers of his own creation in some of the Vanderbilt Mansion gardens and terraces.

Hybrid Brugmansia or Angel’s Trumpet, in the Vanderbilt Mansion Sundial Garden

Halstead, who started Flowers by Friends in 2012 in Levittown, is a self-trained horticulturalist. “I went to Farmingdale State College for a single semester,” he said, “but most of what I’ve learned has been self-taught. I first became interested in gardening when I worked for a grower in Colorado. I’ve put myself into situations where I could also learn from experts in the field.”

Some of those experts were his colleagues at Hicks Nurseries in Westbury, where he became lead tropical flower grower.

While working in Colorado, Halstead also became interested in exotic plants, including ethnobotanicals, specifically Brugmansia. (Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of indigenous plants.) Many of the hybrids he planted in the Sundial Garden are Brugmansia, flowering ornamental plants. They are also called Angel’s Trumpets for their large, fragrant flowers.

“When I saw what the leading Brugmansia growers were producing, I became fascinated,” he said. “I was inspired when I imagined what the hybrids would look like in a flower show. That’s what really drives me. At Flowers by Friends, we design flower shows using new hybrids of rare exotic plants. We want to educate people about their importance.”

In learning about horticulture and building his business, Halstead said he was guided by a philosophical quote from the singer and rapper Kevin Gates: “Anything lost can be found again, except for time wasted. A vision without action is merely a dream.”

Jim Munson, the Vanderbilt’s operations supervisor, who created and oversees the Gardeners Showcase, said, “Francis’s hybrids in the Sundial Garden are in full bloom now. People will not see these flowers anywhere else because, through botany, he has cross-pollinated different flowers to create completely new floral hybrids. His creations are utterly spectacular.”

Halstead also has planted all the flowerpots around the restored saltwater pool and created a display for the fountain in the alcove beneath the staircase to the pool. In addition, he brought in Nelson Demarest, the head garden designer at Hicks Nursery for the last 40 years. Together they created planters for all the balconies in the Mansion courtyard, Munson said.

To produce hybrid flowers, Halstead chooses the flowers he wants to cross-pollinate. “Then, you have to cross them depending on which traits you would want to see in your new seedlings,” he said. “After that, you let the seeds develop, harvest them, name them by the crosses, and plant them.”

Once the plants start to develop, he picks out the ones he no longer wants and grows the others. It takes three years before a Brugmansia cultivar is stable enough to be named. Halstead said few people outside of the plant-growing community know about Brugmansia:

“I sell them through flower shows. That is my real business. Growing plants and creating art with them.”

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is located at 180 Little Neck Road in Centerport. For more information, call 631-854-5579 or visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.

Photos by Jim Munson

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Amongst the Middle Country Public Library’s many historical artifacts are a few that explain just how far the area has come from its pastoral routes.

The pictures and story below comes courtesy of a collaborative effort among the librarian staff.

If you’ve driven down today’s Bicycle Path in Selden, you’ll be quite surprised to see how it used to look. Originally constructed in the 1890s for bicycle enthusiasts, the 14-mile path ran across Long Island from Patchogue to Port Jefferson and was a popular destination for tourists. One of the greatest contributors to the path, Selden resident Albert R. Norton, donated the right-of-way for it in front of his extensive property between Selden and Port Jefferson.

Norton ran the Wheelmen’s Rest, located midway along the route, serving refreshments to the hungry cyclists. Its visitor’s log recorded over 6,000 names, including bicyclists from all parts of the U.S. as well as England, France, Denmark and other countries. Perhaps of more interest are the entries of many Centereach, Selden and Lake Grove neighbors and ancestors whose signatures recall their lives in the communities. The original register of visitors to the Wheelmen’s Rest can be viewed at the Town of Brookhaven Historian’s office.

Bicycle Path was a busy spot during the summertime. The 1899 League of American Wheelmen’s Midsummer Festival program shows the elaborate events held from Thursday to Saturday. The Cyclists’ Carnival began in Patchogue and featured sailing, swimming, fishing and a clambake on the Great South Bay. Friday featured a ride to Babylon, where Charley Murphey cycled a pacing mile alongside a locomotive. On Saturday, members rode the “Cross Island Cycle Path” through Selden to Port Jefferson, where a parade, cycle races and Fire Department contests capped off the
carnival’s events.

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