The Hyundai Elantra after firefighters put out the flames. Photo by Steve Silverman and Matt Schwier
A 19-year-old woman was able to break free from her Hyundai Elantra before it was fully engulfed in flames just after noon on Saturday, April 2, in Commack.
The Hyundai Elantra engulfed in fire. Photo by Steve Silverman and Matt Schwier
The woman struck a tree while driving on Verleye Avenue, causing the car to overturn and eventually catch fire.
Emergency responders from the Commack Fire Department, Commack Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and Suffolk County Police Department responded to the crash near Lefferts Avenue. The Commack Fire Department responded with three engines and a heavy rescue truck.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames and used foam to cover the spilled gasoline.
The Commack Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported the teenager to Huntington Hospital.
The Northport Public Library. File photo from library
It’s budget season for libraries across Huntington Town, and they’re looking to keep costs low.
The Northport-East Northport Public Library has proposed an overall lower budget, but with a slight increase in the tax levy. The total budget is an approximate $160,000 decrease from last year’s; however, the board is proposing to collect $21,000 more in taxes than the year before.
Among the reasons for this is the fact that the library had $165,000 in unrestricted fund appropriation for last year’s budget, but not this year. Compared to revenues collected last year, the library expects to collect about $181,000 less.
The biggest costs for this year’s budget include employee salaries, health insurance, books and electronic resources.
Northport-East Northport 30-year-resident Margaret Hartough is running for re-election as library trustee. She is currently the head of the teen services department at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library.
“The Northport-East Northport Public Library has always been a special place for me and my family,” she said in a statement. “My children spent many hours at the library, and benefited from all the great resources and wonderful programs. I believe the library is truly the heart of the community and strong libraries build strong communities.”
Over at Huntington Public Library, the board of trustees has proposed a 0 percent increase for the budget; asking residents to approve the same approximate $8.8 million budget as last year.
The Harborfields Public Library. File photo
Compared to the 2015-16 budget, building renovation costs are less than half of last year’s, with a difference of about $540,000. This contributes to the 0 percent overall increase. Costs are also going down by 80 percent for printing supplies and 100 percent for bibliographic utility, which is a service that provides record keeping.
Library trustee incumbent Charles Rosner is running unopposed for re-election. He first joined the board in 2011. Rosner received an MBA from Harvard Business School and before retiring in 2002 was a CEO at Gemcoware in Hauppauge.
Harborfields Public Library is following suit with Huntington and proposing a 0 percent increase for its 2016-17 budget, with a $4.8 million overall total. Most of the library’s costs mirror last year’s numbers, with the biggest difference in retirement and health insurance. Retirement costs decreased by $83,000, and health insurance costs increased by $50,000.
Centerport resident David Clemens is running for a seat in the Harborfields Public Library board of trustees. He previously served as a trustee for the Huntington Historical Society and the Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association. Clemens is currently a trustee of the Suffolk County Historical Society and chairman of the library committee there.
Finishing out the Huntington area is Cold Spring Harbor Library, with a proposed budget of about $2 million and an overall 0 percent increase. By far the biggest item on the budget is salaries for employees, which comes in at just over $1 million.
According to the library’s website, highlights of the budget include supporting vital programs like free e-books and homework help.
Residents can cast their votes on Tuesday, April 5, at their respective libraries.
Asharoken Mayor Greg Letica, center, and Trustees Laura Burke and Mel Ettinger are all seeking a third term in Village Hall. Photo from Laura Burke
Three elected officials in Asharoken Village announced their bid for re-election on Monday morning.
Mayor Greg Letica and Trustees Mel Ettinger and Laura Burke all hope to land a third term in office in the June election.
“It has been an honor to have served the village alongside Trustee Ettinger and Trustee Burke for the last four years,” Letica said in a statement. “We are very proud of what has been accomplished since 2012 and look forward to the opportunity to serve the village in the next two years. Although there are still many important issues to face, we are confident that we will be able to draw together the community, as we have done many times in the past, to reach the best solutions for Asharoken.”
Letica, who has lived in Asharoken since 1957, has previously served as a trustee, village treasurer, deputy harbormaster, police contract negotiator and a budget committee member. In discussing his campaign for re-election, the incumbent touted the village’s strong finances.
“Long term, the village is in excellent financial shape,” Letica said in a letter to residents regarding the budget. “Our reserve accounts are properly funded and will allow the village to make necessary infrastructure improvements, update our police fleet, maintain our Village Hall and properly fund police retirement costs with little to no impact on the following year’s tax rate.”
This year, Asharoken officials have proposed a budget that complies with the state-mandated cap on tax levy increases but also maintains services throughout the village. And, according to a press release from the New York State comptroller, two financial stress tests of local governments in the last four years resulted in Asharoken receiving the best evaluation possible — no financial stress designation.
A major project that the village completed this past year was the construction of a new village hall, which Ettinger began working on almost 10 years ago.
“It has turned out to be fantastic,” Ettinger said of the new building in a phone interview. “It’s a wonderful facility where we not only hold village board meetings, but also court. Functions like the Asharoken Garden Club also use the space.”
As for why he is seeking a third term, Ettinger said, “I love the village. I feel we have accomplished a great deal with the current administration, but we still have a fair amount more to do.”
Ettinger has not only served as a trustee for the past four years, but also as police commissioner for almost a decade, the project manager for the construction of the new Asharoken Village Hall and once as the highway commissioner. He has lived in Asharoken for 25 years.
The village has also taken steps to decrease their environmental footprint.
Over the last four years, Asharoken has signed an agreement with Huntington Town and Northport Village to work together on protecting the water quality in Northport Bay. Asharoken has also made a deal in which its residents can use Northport’s e-waste recycling program, and one with Smithtown Town to initiate single-stream recycling in the village so residents can put all their recyclables on the curb together. As part of the latter agreement, Asharoken transports its recyclables to Kings Park, where Smithtown workers take the material for processing at a special facility in Brookhaven.
Burke has played an integral role in the recycling improvements.
“I helped to implement single-stream recycling in the village, which has been a tremendous success, resulting in tax savings,” she said in an email.
She also edits the village newspaper.
Burke grew up in Asharoken and, after living in the city for several years while working as a marketing executive, she moved back to raise a family.
“I’m pleased to be running for my second full term as trustee along with Mayor Letica and Trustee Ettinger, both residents with exemplary character and work ethic,” she said. “The current board … works well together, considers opposing views respectfully and makes decisions based on what is in the best interest of the Village of Asharoken and its residents.”
Residents have until May 17 to complete paperwork to run for the three village positions.
Protestors gather at the Huntington train station on Monday afternoon. Photo from Michael Pauker
Protestors are no longer minding the gap when it comes to the state’s minimum wage.
Protestors flocked to the Huntington Long Island Rail Road station during the evening rush hour on Monday in support of an increase in the state minimum wage.
The group also hit several other North Shore train stations in areas where state senators have not yet committed to supporting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) proposal for a $15-per-hour minimum wage.
“This state thrives when every New Yorker has the opportunity and the ability to succeed,” Cuomo said in a statement in support of his minimum wage hike from $9 per hour. “Yet the truth is that today’s minimum wage still leaves far too many people behind — unacceptably condemning them to a life of poverty even while they work full-time. This year, we are going to change that. We are going to raise the minimum wage to bring economic opportunity back to millions of hardworking New Yorkers and lead the nation in the fight for fair pay.”
A protestor raises a sign on the platform. Photo from Michael Pauker
Members of the group Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, organized the protests with hopes of putting pressure on North Shore lawmakers.
“We’re making a splash during rush hour today to remind our state senators that the economic security of millions of New Yorkers is in their hands,” Rachel Ackoff, senior national organizer at Bend the Arc, said in an email. “Our state and country are facing an economic inequality crisis and raising the minimum wage is essential to help countless families get by and strengthen our economy.”
As for why the group chose to protest at train stations, Ackoff said it is a common ground for all walks of life.
“LIRR stations are the central meeting grounds of thousands of workers heading to and from their jobs each day,” she said. “We appreciated the cheers and thumbs up of the folks we encountered.”
Ackoff said many New York workers who are not making the minimum wage are struggling to support families.
“We’re so outraged by the fact that so many parents in our state, who are working full times jobs on the current minimum wage, aren’t even paid enough to provide for their families’ basic needs,” she said. ““It’s time for our state leaders to take action.”
She zeroed in on specific North Shore lawmakers, including state Sens. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), and Michael Venditto (R-Massapequa).
A protestor speaks to a passenger at the Huntington train station. Photo from Michael Pauker
Marcellino, who presides over parts of Huntington, did not return a call for a comment.
Bend the Arc has several chapters across the country, and this year, they launched #JewsFor15 a campaign to support the fight for $15, by mobilizing Jewish communities across the country to support local and state campaigns to increase the minimum wage. They said they feel not supporting the $15-per-hour minimum wage is a violation of fundamental values as both Jews and Americans.
“By speaking up for the ‘Fight for $15 movement,’ we are honoring the legacy of our Jewish ancestors, many of whom immigrated to the U.S. at the turn of the century, worked in factories, and fought for higher wages and union rights,” Ackoff said.
Eric Schulmiller, of the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore in Manhasset, echoed the sentiment while speaking at the Hicksville train station.
“I’m here today because striving for social justice is a core part of my identity as a faith leader and a core part of Jewish communal traditions,” he said. “Jews have been engaged in America’s social justice movements for generations and we’re not about stand on the sidelines now, when countless American families are struggling to make ends meet and economic inequality is growing more and more severe.”
Sheldon Leftenant, the man who allegedly shot police officer Mark Collins, is escorted out of the 3rd Precinct on his way to arraignment in March. File photo by Barbara Donlon
The Huntington Station man convicted of attempted murder of a police officer was sentenced in Riverhead on Monday morning to 55 years to life in prison, Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said.
A jury convicted Sheldon Leftenant, 23, of attempted aggravated murder, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and resisting arrest on Jan. 26. On Monday, a judge sentenced him to 40 years to life on the attempted murder charge and 15 years to life on the weapons charge.
Spota said he was pleased with the sentence for Leftenant, who authorities have said is a member of the “Tip Top Boyz” street gang.
Police officer Mark Collins speaks after the sentencing of the Huntington Station man who shot him twice. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
“I think the judge said it best, that this is a man who deserves absolutely no mercy,” he said. “He has no regard for human life. He certainly, on the evening of this occurrence, had no regard for the life of police officer [Mark] Collins and he deserved the maximum. I hope and I trust that he spends every single day of the remainder of his life in jail because that is where he belongs.”
Just before midnight on March 12, 2015, Collins, a 13-year veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department, pulled over a speeding car in which Leftenant was a passenger near Mercer Court in Huntington Station. Collins, a plainclothes member of the 2nd Precinct gang unit, ordered Leftenant to exit the vehicle before the suspect started running, forcing the officer to chase him. Collins deployed his Taser twice on Leftenant, hitting him in the back. As the officer tried to handcuff the man, unaware of his suspect’s weapon, there was a struggle and Leftenant shot Collins twice — once in the neck and once in the hip.
Leftenant fled and was soon apprehended.
Collins survived the gunshot wounds. From the courthouse, he reacted to the Huntington Station man’s sentencing.
“I’m just happy to be here and be back to work and live a healthy life again,” Collins said.
He thanked everyone from his fellow officers to the staff at Stony Brook University Hospital for their help and support.
“I still have some lingering side effects but I am not going to let them hold me back. I have a whole different outlook on life, and a lot of things mean a lot more to me these days and I am happy to be here.”
Sheldon Leftenant’s wife Angelica said her husband is innocent after the sentencing on Monday. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
He also said he was satisfied with Leftenant’s sentence.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini said the case highlights the importance of the county supporting their law enforcement officials.
“Suffolk County will not stand for violence against our law enforcers,” he said after the sentencing. “It is that simple.”
Leftenant’s wife Angelica said she believes her husband did not have a fair chance in the case, saying that despite the verdict, he is not guilty.
“Sheldon Leftenant is innocent and we will prove that in an appeal,” she said. “Sheldon will be walking home on an appeal. I laughed [when I heard he was sentenced to 55 years] because he’s coming home. My husband will be walking home next to me. [The] case is going to be dropped.”
Robert Biancavilla, the deputy homicide bureau chief within the DA’s office, disagreed.
“Mr. Leftenant could not have been given a more fair trial in this case,” he said. “Everyone basically bent over backward to ensure that all of his rights were guarded and that he received a fair trial. The evidence against Mr. Leftenant was overwhelming and he to this day refused to acknowledge that or take responsibility for it.”
The front entrance of Huntington Hospital's new emergency department that will open in 2017. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
By Victoria Espinoza
The days of dreading the emergency room may be over come Jan. 2, 2017.
Huntington Hospital is more than one year into $43 million worth of renovations for its new emergency department, which was designed to herald in shorter wait times, a separate pediatric section, an expanded trauma center, and private rooms for all patients.
The department is expected to open the day after New Years Day next year, with all state-of-the-art equipment and protocol.
“Most of our admissions come through the ER, most of the people in the building came through the ER, so that’s your face to the community,” said Gerard X. Brogan, MD, executive director at Huntington Hospital and professor of emergency medicine at Hofstra North Shore LIJ School of Medicine.
The plan for Huntington Hospital’s new emergency department. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
Brogan said the current ER sees about 51,000 patients a year, but was designed for 24,000. Coming in at around 31,000 square feet, this new facility promises to be bigger and better than anything Huntington residents have seen before, Brogan said.
“So this will be more than twice the size of the current department,” he said.
By far the most common complaint patients visiting the ER have is the wait time. And Brogan said the new layout and protocol would help cut wait time down and expedite the process of a patient being treated.
“Part of that bottleneck starts right up front. You wait to even get triaged and see a nurse,” he said. “This ER has four different triage stations, and at the time of triage there will be either a physician, a physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner there. As you’re getting triaged the workup is already starting. We’re taking blood samples, we’re deciding if you need any X-Rays.”
Brogan also said that by the time a patient is sent to the department to be treated, “your blood is already cooking in the lab, radiology is already coming to find you for an X-ray and a doctor is already started to direct your work up.”
He said the hospital’s current ER has already put this method into effect and has cut down patients’ visit by an average of 48 minutes — about one third of their stay.
“It shouldn’t be a penalty for being sick that you sit in an ER for five hours,” Brogan said.
New staff protocol should also cut down wait times. This includes a new lab testing system that has just been put into use, which brings the quickest results in the North Well health system, according to Brogan. Biofire FilmArray, a molecular multiplex assay, allows for results to be returned within an hour rather than 24 hours. This helps patients spend less time at the hospital and allow for treatment to be administered faster if necessary.
The floor to ceiling windows that will be featured in the special results waiting area in the new Huntington Hospital emergency department that will open in 2017. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
“Determining someone’s illness and beginning to treat it quickly is vital for the patient,” Gary Stone, MD, associate chair of pathology and laboratory medicine said in a statement. “This faster laboratory test will also help Huntington Hospital’s emergency department to diagnose, treat and release patients faster.”
Another way Brogan said the ER plans to keep patients happy while they wait is through additional lounge areas.
“Some tests, by their very nature, take at least 45 minutes to an hour to actually perform, so we will have a special results waiting area with comfortable recliners and floor to ceiling windows,” he said. “You’re not going to be sitting on a stretcher, you’ll be out in a lounge area, looking outside and seeing sunlight or watching the sunset.”
The layout also aims at redoing the current entrance system, he said. There will be two entrances in the new ER, one for ambulances and one for patients and families coming in. “Now, if you’re walking your kid in with a sore throat there can be an ambulance unloading right next to you,” Brogan said. “This way, we keep the dramatic traumas which might be uncomfortable to young children around the corner.”
The new department will be giving patients single rooms that measure up to 11 feet by 13 feet.
“You can close your door, and you don’t have to see or hear or smell any of the other cases going on in the emergency department.”
In terms of the ER, which is now 20 years old, Brogan said nothing has been decided yet as to what it will be used for. But some ideas, he said, included creating an advanced treatment center — which would help patients whose illnesses might’ve taken days to diagnose and treat before — be treated within several hours instead of being committed to the hospital for a few days.
The pediatric emergency department has already been renamed after New York Islanders Hall of Famer Clark Gillies, who committed to donating $2 million to the department through the Clark Gillies Foundation. Staff said they are still hoping to receive other donations to rename parts of the ER including the special results waiting area.
Although residents won’t be able to walk through the doors for another 10 months, staff is already eager to share the space.
“I think for the patients, the experience is going to be just phenomenal,” Brogan said. “You’ll have your own room, auditory and visual privacy, with all the bells and whistles, and monitors in every room outfitted for the most complex patient.”
Rodger Podell became director of the Cold Spring Harbor Library about three months ago. Photo from Roger Podell
There’s a new director at the Cold Spring Harbor Library & Environmental Center.
Rodger Podell came on board about three months ago and is excited about the new bonds he has already made with residents of the area.
“I’ve really enjoyed meeting everyone in the community,” Podell said in a phone interview. “It’s been great to get out and meet with different parental groups. I’ve loved getting to know everyone.”
Podell is no stranger to Long Island, moving to Jericho in 1978 from New Jersey and graduating from Jericho High School. He worked as a freelance video camera operator for a few years on various television and news shows until the late’90s, when he decided to go back to school and pursue a field that had always interested him — library studies.
“I’ve always liked that libraries serve the community and serve all ages,” Podell said. “You can see infants coming in for story time, seniors coming in for social programs and everyone else in between. This is one of the few community-based organizations that serve all ages of the community.”
He graduated with a master’s degree in library studies from Long Island University in 1996, and started working at various school districts on Long Island including Middle Country.
The director also served as the head of school libraries for Western Suffolk BOCES for a few years, where he worked with school librarians throughout the district to help provide development ideas.
Before coming to Cold Spring Harbor, Podell was working as director of the Elmont Public Library in Queens, where he said he served about 1,000 people daily.
“I saw this position [at Cold Spring Harbor] and I had worked with the Cold Spring Harbor school district while at BOCES, so I was familiar with it,” he said. “It’s not only in a beautiful location, but there is also a real dedication here toward education. I could see that right away, and I knew that must carry over into the library.”
Podell said the library is dedicated to the community, not only through many educational programs but entertainment programs as well.
The Cold Spring Harbor Library offers exercise classes, story-time classes, book discussion groups and SAT prep courses.
Podell said a few programs stick out in his mind, like the Jedi Academy, an interactive Star Wars program hosted in February, and Cinderella, a musical production performed at the library in January.
Looking forward, the director said he hopes to continue to improve the library According to Podell, the children’s room was recently changed to better utilize space.
Aside from his director position at Cold Spring Harbor, Podell is also an adjunct professor at Long Island University Palmer School of Library and Information Science, and serves on the Long Island Library Resource Council’s Board of Trustees.
The John W Engeman Theater. Photo from Jessie Eppelheimer
The streets of Northport have come alive with music and laughter in the past 10 years — and that’s all thanks to the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport.
The Main Street theater first opened its doors in 2007 and has been providing Long Island residents with quality entertainment at an affordable price ever since.
When it comes to why theater lovers should chose the Engeman theater over a Broadway show, Director of Operations Michael DeCristofaro said the Northport venue offers an experience you could never get on Broadway.
“We don’t have the space Broadway has,” DeCristofaro said in an interview. “We don’t have wing space or fly space, so we really are able to slow these shows down and find the heart and the essence of the show. People come and see shows like they’ve never seen them before. We’re really able to get into the story of the characters.”
The theater during construction. Photo from Jessie Eppelheimer
DeCristofaro said some shows like “West Side Story,” “The Producers” and the upcoming show “Memphis” stand out as really being able to accomplish just that.
“We were told by numerous patrons, ‘better than Broadway,’” he said. “People felt that seeing it in an intimate venue like this without all the distracting flash of pizzazz and set pieces moving in and out really helped them focus on the characters and have fun and get involved.”
Another aspect of the theater that may contribute to the more intimate setting is the distance from the seats to the stage. According to Jessie Eppelheimer, the operations administrator, the back seats are only about 75 feet from the stage, “which you could never get at a Broadway show,” she said in an interview.
But there is one crucial way in which DeCristofaro thinks his theater stands shoulder to shoulder with Broadway, and that’s in the talent.
“We have a really good amount of Broadway talent,” he said. DeCristofaro listed Eddie Mekka, a Tony-nominated actor, and Michael McGrath, a multiple Tony award-winning actor, as two actors who had lead roles in previous shows at Engeman.
“If our alumni are not on Broadway, they’re in a national touring production,” DeCristofaro said. “We get some really incredible top-notch talent and it’s great for the local community to try and see that top notch talent here in Northport for half of the price they’d paid on Broadway.”
But it wasn’t always that way.
What is now a year-round full equity theater, producing multiple shows a year, was once just a small village movie house.
Originally built in 1912, silent movies used to play at the theater for 50 cents a person. In 1913, the Northport trolley helped make night shows a possibility, and by 1930, talking films came to the village. But two years later, the theater was struck with a fire that completely destroyed the establishment, forcing it to close its doors.
The new theater opened in November 1932 with 754 seats and was positioned directly next door to where the original one had stood. “Sherlock Holmes,” starring Clive Brook and Ernest Torrence, was first to be shown.
According to Eppelheimer, many of the original aspects of the 1930 theater still stand today, including the entire lobby, walls in the theater room and some of the lighting.
“People were attached to [the original design] and they tried to keep it as familiar as possible when they reopened,” she said.
In 2007, Huntington residents Kevin O’Neill and his wife Patti, owners of the theater, welcomed audiences to see real-time plays for the first time, and residents from all over Long Island have been filling in the seats ever since. The theater was named in tribute to O’Neill’s brother, Chief Warrant Officer Four John William Engeman, who was killed in Iraq in May 2006.
The theater now holds up to 400 audience members, has a full bar and lounge and shows multiple musicals and plays annually. Eppelheimer said there are about 5,000 season ticket holders and the theater has an 80 percent retention rate.
For the 10th anniversary season, the Engeman will feature a lineup exclusively of musicals, including a repeat of the inaugural show “Jekyll and Hyde.”
“We’re paying tribute to the first season,” Eppelheimer said. Other shows in the coming year include “Mamma Mia,” “Oklahoma” and “Mary Poppins.”
Over the years the theater has expanded, offering children shows, theater-school programs and hosting charity events.
“It was always intended to not just be a theater,” DeCristafaro said. “We wanted to be able to do more for the community and get children and parents involved.”
Michelle DaSilva stands on stage with members of the Global Justice Club during one of their concert fundraisers. Photo from Michelle DaSilva
For one teacher at Harborfields High School, ensuring her students receive a proper education doesn’t stop at academics.
Michelle DaSilva has been teaching world history at the high school for years, but in 2009 she started a new venture, as advisor to the Global Justice Club.
“This club is meant to let kids know what is going on in other parts of the world,” DaSilva said in a phone interview. She said there are about 70 to 80 kids involved in the club.
The first fundraiser the club organized was to collect baby supplies after Hurricane Sandy devastated the people of Haiti in 2005.
“I had just had a baby and I kept thinking about all the woman in that developing country who didn’t have diapers, or formula,” she said. The club found a local organization that worked with an orphanage in Haiti, where the members were able to donate the $1,500 in items they received.
Since then, DaSilva said the club has gotten bigger and bigger.
In 2010, the club organized the first global justice concert, which has become the main event the group works on during the year. DaSilva described the concert as an event “fully run by the students,” that has helped the club raise more than $10,000 since it started. Members of the club hold auditions, promote the show, organize the raffle and host it, according to the teacher.
Two years into the event, DaSilva said she met Lucy Sumner, a former Harborfields teacher who traveled back to her hometown of Sierra Leone. She runs a non-profit called Magic Penny, which provides financial support for educational, economic and agricultural programs within her country.
“Now all the money goes directly to her,” DaSilva said. “She’s an amazing woman, and what’s nice is that I know exactly where the money is going. When I put it in her hands, it’s being used for the right thing.”
Global Justice has raised enough money for Magic Penny to fund the building of a school, scholarships for students, teacher training programs, and more.
Currently, DaSilva said they are raising money to help create a middle school, since the first school they raised money for only teaches children up to fifth grade.
“These students are now having to go into the city for middle school, where there is a lot of exploitation and unsafe circumstances, and their families cannot afford to travel with them,” DaSilva said.
Aside from the annual concert, the Global Justice club also organizes and participates in many other fundraisers throughout the year, including a 24-hour famine where students are sponsored…; food drives; and education campaigns — one of which was a refugee project, where members of the club turned different hallways into parts of the world where there are large refugee problems.
“We want to be thinking globally,” DaSilva said of the club, “and acting locally.”
The brochure kicks off with a video greeting from Supervisor Frank Petrone. Photo from Huntington Town
Huntington is bringing the future to the present with their new parks and recreation brochure.
For the first time, the town’s parks and recreation department seasonal catalog will be available online in a digital version. Aside from including the standard information like information on the town’s athletic programs, camps and other activities the town offers, this digital brochure also included videos of some activities and the ability to sign up directly from the guide with a single click.
A view of the front cover of the 2016 spring parks and recreation brochure, the first digital one released by the town. Photo from Huntington Town
“This interactive brochure brings the Town of Huntington into the 21st century,” Supervisor Frank Petrone (D) said in a video as he welcomes residents to the department’s new online brochure. “This is government of the future, allowing residents to find necessary information and to take care of business without having to come to town hall. We are proud of this brochure and the way residents can access the brochure and its great features from their home computers, tablets or smart phones.”
The guide, which changes pages just like flipping pages in a book, has real-time information on whether an activity is oversubscribed or if there is a waiting list, as well as updates on schedule changes. If someone has questions or concerns with any program, they can fill out a brief message in one click that will be sent to the head of whichever program they are asking about.
“The concept came about because we were sending these out to every household in paper format,” Stephen Carballeira, who works in the information technology department for the town, said in an interview. “Ninety-three percent of people were signing up online anyway, but the biggest complaint we used to get was that they’d get it [the brochure] in the mail but they couldn’t really figure out a way to work our system and sing up. It was just a big frustration.”
A.J. Cater, town spokesperson, said that the possibilities with this brochure are “endless” and that this guide will continue to grow and expand.
The parks department has stopped mass printing and distribution of the brochure, which will save the town $50,000 each year. Not only is this decision cost effective, but it also greatly reduces the amount of paper waste the town produces, making it an environmentally friendly move as well, officials said.
But there’s more.
This new brochure saves money, makes programs and information more accessible to the public and reduces the town’s carbon footprint, while also making the town money, the town said.
While the interactive brochure cost about $3,000 to create, the town has made $7,000 in revenue from ads — and that’s just from this first issue alone. Carballeira said ads have a life of about four weeks, and then are replaced with new ones.
Currently, many town businesses cover the pages of the brochure, and their ads are just as interactive as the rest of the information. The Little Gym of Huntington has an ad that features a video of young children playing in the gym, and Roar Energy Drink has an ad with a coupon anyone can print out.
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